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■i^iyHttH 



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ST MARY MAGIDALENo 
Give mercy on mc Godaccordin^^to thy j^reat mercy. 



^-^-^ 



:)|f 






iii^mpi^ffli 




COMPILED FROM 



BY THE RgV ALJBAN BUUEK 

IN TWELVE VOLUMES. 




S'EPHREM. DOCTOR. Of THE CHURCH. 



VOL.YII. 



JAMES DUFFr.l5WELLINCTON9UAY. 

ASD 
LONDON, 22 PATERNOSTER ROW. 



THE LIVES 



FATHERS, MARTYRS, 



OTHER PRINCIPAL SAINTS. 

COMPILED FROM 

ORIGDIAl MONUMENTS AND AUTHENTIC RECORDS. 



BY THE 

REV. ALBAN BUTLER. 



IN TWELVE VOLUMES. 



VOL. vn. 



DUBLIN: » 
JAMES DUFFY, 15, WELLINGTON QUAY, 

AMD 

22, PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON. 
1866 



JOLLY AND LEI0E3TBR, 

8TEAH-PBBSS PBINTEB8, 

22, ESSEX-ST. WEST, DUBLIN. 



CONTENTS. 



JULY. 

■L. PAGV 

6t. Buhbold, Bishop and Martyr . . t 

6S. Jidius and Aaron, Martyrs - • . .3 

St. Theobald, Confessor - - - . - 3 

St. Gal, Bishop - • - . ,7 

Another St. Gal, Bishop - - - . - 8 

St. Calais, Abbot - - . . .8 

St. Leonorus, Bishop - - * - - 9 

St. Simeon - - . - . - )0 

St. Thierri, Abbot - . - - - 10 

St. Cybar, Recluse - - - - - 11 

II. 

The Visitation of the Blessed Virgin . . .12 

6S. Processus and Martinian, Martyrs - . - 17 

St. Otho, Bishop and Confessor - . . .19 

St. Monegondes, B^cluse - - - . - 20 

St. Oudoceus, Bishop - - - - - 21 

XXL 

St. Phocas, Martyr - - - - - 22 

St. Guthagon, Becluse - - - . - 25 

St Guntliiem, Abbot - - - - - 25 

St. Bertran, Bishop • - - - . - 26 

IV. 

St. IJlric, Bishop and Confessor - . . - 27 

St. Odo, Bishop and Confessor - . .. - 30 

St. Sisoes, Anchoret - - • . - 37 

St. Bertha, Widow, Abbess - - - - 41 

St. Finbar, Abbot in Ireland - - - - 42 

St. Bolcan, Abbot in Ireland • . - - 42 

V. 

St. Peter, Bishop and Confessor - - - - 42 

St. Modwena, Virgin in Ireland - - - - 48 

St. £dana. Virgin in Ireland - ^ - . - 49 

VI. 

8t. Palladius, Bishop and Confessor, Apostle of the Scots . 49 
Account of ancient principal Scottish Saints commemorated in an 

ancient Scottish Calendar published by Mr. Robert Keith - 53 

St. Jnlian, Anchoret • . - . - 54 

St. Sexburgh, Abbess - - ' - - - 56 

St, Goar, Priest, Confessor - . - - 57 

St. Moninna, Virgin in Ireland - - . - 57 

VOL. VIL 



148451 



It contents to vol. vn. 

VII. PAO» 

St. Pantsenus, Father of the Church - - - 68 

St. Willibald, Bishop and Confessor - - - 60 

St. Hedda, Bishop and Confessor * . - .63 

St. Edelburgra, Virgin - - - - 64 

St. Feux, Bishop and Confessor . - . - 65 

St. Benedict XI. Pope and Confessor - * - 66 

vm. 

St. Elizabeth, Queen of Portugal ... G8 

St. Procopius^ Martyr - - - - 76 
SS. Eilian, Bishop, Cohnan, Priest, and Totnan, Deacon, Martyrr 78 

St. Wlthburge, Virgin - - - - - 78 

fi. Theobald, Abbot - - - - - 80 

St, Grimbald, Abbot - - - - - SO 

IX. 

St Ejhrcm, Doctor of the Church - - - - 82 

Appendix on the Writings of St. Ephrem - . . ^ 

SS. Martyrs of Gorcum - - - - - 102 

St. Everildis, Virgin - - - - .103 

^• 

The Seven Brothers, and St. Eelicitas, their mother, martyrs . 104 

SS. Bufina and Secunda, Virgins, Martyrs - - 108 

XI. 

St. James, Bishop and Confessor • . - . 109 

His Writings - - - - - .116 

St. Hidulphus, Bishop - . - . - ll9 

St. Pius, I. Pope and Martyr - - - - 121 

St. Drostan, Abbot in Scotland - « - 123 

XII. 

St. John Gualbert, Abbot - - 123 

SS. Nabor and Eelix, Martyrs ... i29 

XIII. 

St. Eugenius, Bishop, &c. Confessors - • - ]29 

St. Anacletus, Pope and Martyr - - - - Ml 

St. Turiaf, Bishop . - - - i41 

XIV. 
St. Bonaventure, Cardinal, Bishop, and Doctor of the Church 1 i2 
Life of B. Giles of Assisio - - - - 152 
Lives and Writings of Peter Lombard, sumamed Master of the 
Sentences, Bishop of Paris, John Duns Scotus, Professor of Di- 
vinity at Oxford, and William Ockham - - - lfi9 
St. Camillus de L^s, Confessor ..... y61 
St. Idus, Bishop in Ireland - - - - 170 

XV. 

St. Henry II. Emperor - ^ - . - - 170 
Some account of the lerritories conferred by Pepin, and confirmed 

by Charlemagne, on the Holy See ... 172 

St. Plechelm, Bishop and Confessor • . - 181 

St. Swithin, Bishop and Confessor • • - 184 



CONTENTS TO VOL. VII. V 

XVI. PAG« 

St. Eastathias, Patriarch of Antioch, Coafestor - - 90 

Life and Writings of Eusebbis, Bishop of Csesarea - - 191 

St. Elier, Hermit and Martyr •■ - - - 196 

XVII. 

St. Alexius, Confessor - - - - - 197 
St. Speratus, &c. Martyrs - . . -199 

life and Writings of Tertnllian - - - - 201 

St. Marcellina, Virgin - - - - - W 

St. Ennodius, Bishop and Confessor - - - 210 

St. Leo. IV. Pope and Confessor - - - - 214 
Some Account of the Slander of Pope Joan - - .215 

St. Tuminus, Confessor of Lreland - - - - 216 

xvin. 

St. Sythphorosa and her seven Sons, Martyrs - ^ - 216 

St. Philastrius, Bishop and Confessor - - - 221 

St. Amoul, Bishop and Confessor .... 223 

St. Amoul, Martyr . . . . . 22^ 

St. Frederic, Bishop and Martyr .... 225 

St. Odulph, Confessor - . - - - 229 

St. Bruno, Bishop and Confessor .... 230 

XIX. 

St. Vincent of Paul, Confessor .... 232 

Some account of Jansenism - - - . 24tl 

St. Arsenius, Anchoret of Scete - . . - 247 

St. Symmachus, Pope and Confessor . . . 257 

St. Macrina, Virgin - - - - - 26<.» 

XX. 

St. Joseph Barsabas, Confessor . . - < . 262 

St. Margaret, Virgin and Martyr - - - . 262 

SS. Justa and Bufina, Martyrs .... 26S 

St. Ceslas, Confessor - - - . - 264 

St. Aurelius, Bishop and Confessor .... 265 

St. Uhnar, Abbot . - - - - 266 

St. Jerom JEmiliani, Confessor .... 267 

^ XXI. 

St. Praxedes, Virgin . - - . - 268 

St. Zoticus, Bishop and Martyr - - . - 269 

St. Barhadbesciabas, Martyr .... 269 

St. Victor, Martyr . . - - - 270 

Life and Writings of Cassian - , . . 272 
Lives and Writings of Hugh and Richard, Canon Regulars of St. 

Victor - r . - . ^276 

St. Arbogastus, Bishop and Confessor ... 277 

XXII. 

St. Mary Magdalen - - - . - 278 

St. Vandrille, Abbot - - - . - 2J^ 

St. Joseph of Palestine - - . - . QOO 

St. Meneve, Abbot - - - . - . .302 

St. Dabios, Confessor, of Ireland - .^ • • 9^^ 



VI 



CONTSNTS TO YOL. VII. 



xxni. PAOB 

St. ApoUinaris^ Bishop and Martyr - . • 303 

St. LiboriuB, £^op and Confessor , - • - • 305 

XXIV. 

St. Lupus, Bishop and Confessor . • ^ • 305 

St. Francis Solano, Confessor . * . ^ 309 

SS. Romanus and David, Martyrs . ^ . - 3il 

Some Account of the Russians, their Saints, &c. - ••317 

St. Christina, Virgin and Martyr * . . .319 

SS. Wulf had and Buffin, Martyrs . ., . -319 

St. Lewine, Virgin and Martyr , . . . 320 
St. Declan, Bishop m Ireland ..... 321 

St. Kinga, Virgin . - - . .321 

XXV. 

St. James the Qreat, Apostle . . ., , 321 

St. Christopher, Martyr - - - - - 329 

SS. Ihea and Valentine, Virgins, and St. Paul, Martyra . 330 

St. Cucufas, Martyr . . , . .331 

St. Nissen, Abbot in Ireland . - . . 331 

XXVL 

St. Anne, Mother of the Blessed Virgin - - ^332 

St. Grermanus, Bishop and Confessor ^ ^ ., 3S^ 

XXVII. 

St. Pantaleon, Martyr . . * . « 342 
SS. Maximian, Malchus, Martinian, Dionysius, John, Serapiou, 

and Constantine, Martyrs .... 344 

St. Congall, Abbot in Ireland .... 345 

St. Luican, Confessor in Ireland .... 345 

XXVIII. 
SS. Nazarius and Celsus, Martyrs .... 345 
St. Victor, Pope and Martyr . t . - 346 

St. Innocent I. Pope and Confessor . . . .351 

St. Sampson, Bishop and Confessor . r - . 353 

XXIX. 
St. Martha, Virgin .... 

SS. Simplicius, FaustinuB, and Beatrice, Martyrs 
St. Felix, Pope and Martyr . . ^ 

St. William, Bishop and Confessor . . ., 

St. OlauB, King and Martyr ... 

Another St. Olaus, ^ing and Martyr 

XXX. 

SS^ Abdon and Sennen, Martyrs ... 
St. Julitta, Martyr • • « . 

XXXL 

St..Ignatiusof Loyola, Confessor .... 

St. John Golumbmi, Confessor 

6t, Helen, Martyr • ^ ^ 



855 

361 
361 
361 
362 
364 



364 
366 



40S 

405 



IIVES 

OF THE 

FATHERS, MARTYRS, AND OTHER PRINCIPAL SAINT& 



JULY I. 
SAINT RUMOLD, B. M. 

PATRON OP MECHLIN.* 

C^rom tiie BoUandists, Ward, Act. &c. S. Komoldi, Lot. 1662^ 4to. SeU 
lerii Act. S. Rumoldi, An. 1716, &c. 

A. D. 775- 

St. Rumold renounced the world in his youth and embraced a 
state of voluntary poverty, being convinced that whatever ex- 
ceeds the calls of nature is a useless load and a perfect burden 
to him who bears it. He was the most declared enemy to vo« 
luptuousness, and by frugality, moderation, and a heart pure 
and disengaged from all seducing vanities, and desires of what 
is supei^uous, he tasted the most solid pleasure which virtue 
gives in freeing a man from the tyranny of his passions, when 

• The place of St. Eumold's birth is contested. According to certain 
Belgic and other Martyrologies, he was of the blood royal of Scotland (as 
Ireland was then called) and bishop of Dublin. Tliis opinion is ably 
supported by F. Hu. Ward, an Irish Franciscan, a man well skilled in 
the antiquities of his country, in a work entitled Dissertatio Historica de 
Vita et Fatria S. Rumoldi, Archiepiscopi Dttbliniensis, published at Lou. 
▼ain in 1662, in 4to. The learned Pope Benedict XIV. seems to adjudge 
St. Eumold to Ireland, in his letter to the prelates of that kingdom, 
dated the 1st of August, 1741, wherein are the following words : ** Quod 
si reeensere voluerlmus sanctissimos viros Columbanum, Eilianum, Vir- 
giUum, Bumoldum, Galium, aliosque plures qui ex Hibernia in alias pro- 
Tincias catholicam fidem invexerunt, aut illam per martyrium effuso 
sanguine coUustrarunt." (Hib. Dom. Suppl. p. 831.) On the other hand, 
Janning the Bollandist undertakes to prove that St. Kumold was an Eng. 
lish Saxon. See Janning and J. B. Sellerii Acta S. Bumoldi; Antwerp. 
1718; also F. Ward, and Ware's Bishops, p. 305. ' 



2 ST. RUMOLD, B. M. [JuLT !• 

he feels them subjected to him, and finds himself above them. 
Victorious over himself, by humility, meekness, and mortifica- 
tion, he reaped in his soul, without any obstacles from self-love 
or inordinate attachments, the sweet and happy fruits of assi- 
duous prayer and contemplation, whereby he sanctified his 
studies, in which he made great progress, and at the same time 
advanced daily in Christian perfection. He had faithfully 
served God many years in his own country, when an ardent 
zeal for the divine honour and the salvation of souls induced 
him to travel into Lower Grermany to preach the faith to the 
idolaters. He made a journey first to Rome to rec.eive his mis- 
sion from the chief pastor, and with the apostolic blessing went 
into Brabant, great part of which country about Mechlin he 
converted to the faith. He was ordained a regionary or mis- 
sionary bishop without any fixed see. He frequently interrupted 
his exterior functions to renew his spirit before God in holy 
solitude. In his retirement he was slain on the 24th of June 
in 775, by two sons of Belial, one of whom he had reproved for 
adultery. His body was thrown into a river ; but being miracu- 
lously discovered, it was honourably interred by his virtuous 
friend and protector. Count Ado. A great and sumptuous 
church was built at Mechlin to receive his precious relics, 
which is still possessed of that treasure, and bears the name of 
this saint. The city of Mechlin keeps his feast a solemn holiday, 
and honours him as its patron and apostle. Janning the Bol- 
landist gives a long history of his miracles. His great church 
at Mechlin was raised to the metropolitical dignity by Paul IV. 
Ware says that the feast of St. Eumold was celebrated as a 
double festival with an office of nine lessons throughout the 
province of Dublin before the reformation. It was extended to 
the whole kingdom of Ireland in the year 1741. 

It was from the spirit of prayer that the saints derived all 
their light and all their strength. This was the source of all 
the blessings which heaven through their intercession showered 
down on the world, and the means which they employed to com- 
municate an angelical purity to their souls. " This spirit," says 
a father of the Church,(l) " is nourished by retreat, which in 
some maimer may be called the parent of purity." This ad* 

(1) St. John Pamascen. Senn. de Transfig. Dom. 



July 1.] st. theobald, c. 3 

mirable transformation of our souls produced by prayer is to be 
attributed to God's glory, which by prayer he makes to shine in 
the secret of our hearts. In fine, when all the avenues of our 
senses are closed against the creature, and that God dwells with 
us, and we with God ; when freed from the tumult and dis- 
tractions of the world we apply all our attention to interior 
things and consider ourselves such as we are, we then become 
capable of clearly contemplating the kingdom of God, established 
in us by that charity and ardent love which consumes all the 
rust of earthly affections ; for the kingdom of heaven, or ra- 
ther the Lord of heaven itself, is within us, as Jesus Christ 
himself assures us. 

SS. JULIUS AND AARON, MM. 

These saints were Britons, and seem to have taken, the one a 
Roman and the other a Hebrew name at their baptism. They 
glorified God by martyrdom at Caerleon upon Usk in Mon- 
m')uthshire, in the persecution of Dioclesian, probably about 
the year 303. St. Gildas,(l) St. Bede,(2) and others, speak of 
their triumph as having been most illustrious. Leland and 
Bale say, SS. Julius and Aaron had travelled to Rome, and 
" there applied themselves to the aacred studies.** Bede adds, 
• " very many others of both sexes, by unheard of tortures, at- 
tained to the crown of heavenly glory." Giraldus Cambrensis 
informs us that their bodies were honoured at Caerleon in the 
year 1200, when he wrote. Each of these martyrs had a titular 
church in that city ; that of St. Julius belonged to a nunnery, 
and that of St. Aaron to a monastery of canons. See Godwin 
De Episc. Landav. Geoffrey of Monmouth, Giraldus Cambrensis, 
Leland, and Tanner, BibL Britan. p. I. 

ST. THEOBALD OR THIBAULT, C. 

He was of the family of the counts palatine of Champagne, 
and son of Count Arnoul. He was born at Frovins in Brie in 
1017, and was called Theobald from the most virtuous archbi- 
shop of Vienne, who was his uncle. In his youth he preserved 
his heart free from the corruption of the world amidrt its vani« 

(l)GUdiia,fi.a (2) Bede. Hl«t. L 1, c. 7* 



y 



4 ST. THEOBALD, Cr [JuiiT K 

ties ; and tbe more pains others took to make him conceive a 
relish foY them, . the more diligent he was in fencing his heart 
against their dangers^ and the more perfectly he discovered their 
jemptiness and secret poison. In reading the lives of the fathers 
of the desert he was muck affected by the admirable examples 
of penance, self-denial, holy contemplation, and Christian per- 
fection, which were set before his eyes as it were in a glass^ 
and he earnestly desired to imitate them. The lives of St. John 
the Baptist, of St. Paul the hermit^ St. Antony, and St^Ar- 
senius in their wildernesses, charmed him, and he sighed after 
.the like sweet retirement, in which he might, without interrup- 
tion, converse with God by prayer and contemplation. He often 
resorted to an holy hermit named Burchard, who lived in a 
little island in the Seine ; and by making essays he began to 
inure himself to fasting, watching, long prayers, and every 
rigorous practice of penance. He declined all the advantageous 
matches and places at court or in the army which his father 
could propose to him. His cousin Eudo, Count Palatine of 
Champagne, and Count of Chartres and Blois, upon the death 
of his uncle Bodolph, the last king of Burgundy, in 1034, laid 
claim to that crown as next heir in blood ; but the emperor 
Conrad the Salic seized upon it by virtue of the testament of 
the late king.* Hereupon ensued a war, and Count Amoul or- 
dered his son to lead a body of troops to the succour of his 
cousin ; but the young general represented so respectfully to his 
father the obligation of a vow by which he had bound himself 
to quit the world, that he at length extorted his consent. 

Soon after the saint and another young nobleman called "Wal- 
ter, his intimate friend, each taking one servant, went to the 
abbey of St. Bemigius in Kheims, and thence having sent back 
their servants with their baggage, they set out privately ; and 
in the clothes of two beggars, in exchange for which they had 
given their own rich garments, they travelled barefoot into Ger- 
many. Finding the forest of Petingen in Suabia a convenient 

* The Becond kingdom of Burgundy was begun in 890, by Balph, ne- 
phew to Bozon, whom the Emperor Charles the Bald, king of France, 
had made king of Aries in 876, giving him Provence and part of I^u- 
phine. This second kingdom of Burgundy comprised Provence, Savoy, 
the Viennois, and the county of Burgundy. The duchy of Burgundy 
had its duke at the same time. 



July 1.] st, Theobald, c. 5 

solitude for their purpose, they built themselves there two Kttle 
<m;11s. Having learned from Burchard that manual labour is a 
necessarj dutj of an ascetic or penitential life, and not being 
skilled in the manner of working to make mats or baskets, they 
often went into the neighbouring villages and there hired them* 
selves by the day to serve the masons, or to work in the fields, 
to carry stones and mortar, to load and unload carriages, to 
cl^^se the stables under the servants of the farmers, or to blow 
the oellows and to make fires for the forges. "With their wages 
they bought coarse brown bread, which was their whole subsis- 
tence. Whilst they worked with their hands, their hearts were 
secretly employed in prayer ; and at night retiring again into 
their forest, they watched long, singing together the divine 
praises, and continuing in holy contemplation. Their carriage 
and the tenderness of their complexion discovered that they had 
not been trained up in manual labour, and the reputation of 
their sanctity after some time drew the eyes of men upon them. 
To shun which they resolved to forsake a place where they 
were no longer able to live in humiliation and obscurity. They 
performed barefoot a pilgrimage to Compostella, and returned 
into Germany. 

Passing through Triers, it happened that Theobald there met 
his father Count Amoul ; but with his tanned face, and in his 
ragged clothes, passing for a beggar, he was not known by him. 
He was strongly affected, and was scarcely able to stifle the 
tender sentiments with which his heart was quite overcome at 
the sight of so dear and affectionate a parent. However, he 
suppressed them ; but to quit the neighbourhood where he 
might be again exposed to the like trial, he undertook a pilgri* 
mage to Rome. The two fervent penitents travelled every. 
where barefoot ; and after they had visited fdl the holy places 
in Italy, they chose for their retirement a hideous woody place 
called Salanigo, near Yicenza, where, with the leave of the 
lord of the manor, they built themselves two cells, near an old 
ruinous chapeL Prayer and the exercises of penance were their 
constant employment, till after two years God called "Walter to 
himself. Theobald looked upon this loss as a warning that he 
had not long to live, and he exerted his whole strength, re^ 
doubling his pace to run with greater vigour as he drew near 



L • V 



6 ST. THEOBALD, C. [JdLT 1. 

the end of his race. He had lived on oat bread and water, with 
roots and herbs ; but at length he interdicted himself even the 
use of bread, taking no other food but herbs and roots. He 
always wore a rough hair shirt ; his bed was a board, and foi 
the five last years of his life he took his rest sitting on a wooden 
seat The bishop of Vicenza promoted him to priest's orders, 
and several persons put themselves under his direction. His 
lineage and quality being discovered, his aged parents were no 
sooner informed that their son was alive, and that the hermit of 
Salanigo, the reputation of whose sanctity, prophecies, and 
miracles filled all Europe, was that very son whose absence had 
been to them the cause, of so long a mourning ; but they set out 
with great joy to see him. His frightful desert, his poor cell, 
his tattered clothes, and above all his emaciated body, made so 
strong impressions upon their hearts at the first sight that they 
both cast themselves at his feet, and for a considerable time were 
only able to speak to him by their tears. When they were 
raised from the ground, and had recovered from their first sur- 
prise, faith overcame in them the sentiments of nature, and 
converted their sorrow into joy. The sight of so moving an 
example extinguished in their hearts all love of the world, snd 
they both resolved upon the spot to dedicate themselves to the 
divine service. The count was obliged by his affairs to return 
into Brie ; but Gisla, the saintfs mother, obtained her husband's 
consent to finish her course near the cell of her son. The saint 
made her a little hut at some distance from his own, and took 
great pains to instruct her in the practice of true perfection. 
He was shortly after visited with his last sickness ; his body was 
covered over with blotches and ulcers, and every limb afilicted 
with some painful disorder. The servant of God suffered this 
distemper with a most edifying patience and joy. A little be- 
fore his death he sent for Peter, the abbot of Y angadice, of the 
Order of Camaldoli^ from whose hands he had received the re- 
ligious habit a year before. To him he recommended his mother 
and his disciples : and having^ received the viaticum he expired 
in peace on the last day of June, 1066, being about tlurty-three 
years old, of which he had spent twelve at Salanigo and three 
in Suabia, and in his pilgrimages. His relics were translated 
to the church dependent on the abbey of St. Columba, at Sen^^ 



July 1.] st. gal, b. 7 

And afterwairds to a chapel near Auxerre called St. TLibaud 
aux Bois. He was canonized bj Alexander ILL., and his name 
is in great veneration at Sens, Frovins, Paris, Auxerre, Lan-> 
gres, Toul, Triers, Autun, and Beauvais. See his life faith- 
fully written by a contemporary author. 

ST. GAL, CALLED THE FIRST, 

BISHOP OP CLfiBMONT IN AUVEBGNE. 

He was bom about the year 489. His father Greorge was of 
the first^ houses of that province, and his mother Leocadia was 
descended from the family of Vettius Apagatus, the celebrated 
Boman, who suffered at Lyons for the faith of Christ. They 
both took special care of the education of their son ; and when 
he arrived at a proper age proposed to have him married to the 
daughter of a respectable senator. The saint, who had taken a 
resolution to consecrate himself to God, withdrew privately 
from his father's house to the monastery of Cournon, near the 
city of Auvergne, and earnestly prayed to be admitted there 
amongst the monks ; and having soon after obtained the con- 
sent of his parents, he with joy renounced all worldly vanities 
to embrace religious poverty. Here his eminent virtues dis- 
tinguished him in a particular manner, and recommended him 
to Quintianus, bishop of Auvergne, who promoted him to holy 
orders. 

The bishop dying in 527, St. Gal was appointed to succeed 
him ; and in this new character his humility, charity, and zeal 
were conspicuous ; but, above all, his patience in bearing 
injuries. Being once struck on the head by a brutal man, he 
discovered not the least emotion of anger or resentment, and by 
this meekness disarmed the savage of his rage. At another 
time Evodius, who from a senator became a priest, having so 
far forgot himself as to treat him in the most insulting manner, 
the saint without making the least reply, arose meekly from his 
seat and went to visit the churches of the city. Evodius was 
so touched by this conduct, that he cast himself at the saint's 
feet in the middle of the street and asked his pardon. From 
this time they both lived on terms of the most cordial friend- 
ship. St. Gal was favoured with the gift of miracles^ and died 



I 

L 



8 Stk CALAIS, A. [JuLlr 1. 

about the year 553. He is mentioned this day in the Roman 
Martyrology. See St* Greg, of Tours, his nephew, Vit. Patr. 
c* 6 $ Hist* Franc. L 4, c. 5 ; also the remarks of Mabillon, sec 
1 ; Bened. Gall. Christ, Nov. t. 2, p. 237, and Sellier the Bol- 
landist, t. 1 ; Jul. p. 103. 

Another St. Gal, called the Second, is honoured at Clermont 
on the 1st of November. He was bishop of that see in G5(U 
See GalL Christ Nova, t. 2, p. 245. 

ST. CALAIS, IN LATIN CARILEPHUS, 

FIRST ABBOT OF ANILLE IN MAINE. 

He was born in Auvergne, of a family equally virtuous and 
noble. He was yet a child wheh they sent him to the monas'> 
tery of Menat in the diocess of Clermont, in order to be early 
principled in knowledge and piety. Here he became a re-^ 
ligious, and practised all the prescriptions of the rule with the 
greatest fervour. After some time he quitted the monastery 
with St. Avi, and they both retired to the abbey of Micy near 
Orleans. The bishop of this city having destined them for holy 
orders, they withdrew themselves from the abbey, and advanc- 
ing together as far as Perche, led by their fervour to the aus- 
terities of an eremitical life, they separated* St. Calais was 
followed by two persons, who by no means would consent to 
quit him, and with these he went to Maine, where he perfectly 
revived the rigorous discipline of the ancient eastern hermits. 
But as he was constantly visited by numbers who sought to live 
under his direction, he at length consented to receive them. 
King Childebert gave him land whereon to build a monastery, 
which was first called Anisole or AniUe, from the river on 
which it was situated,* but it is now, as well as the little town 
built round it, called after this saint. The life of the holy 
founder was not only extraordinary for penance and prayer, 
but he excelled in the exact observance of his rules ; insomuch 



* It is nine leagues from Mans. Childebert in the charter says, that tlia 
land had been already given to the saint by CIotis his father. (Marten. 
Amp. CoU. torn. 1, p. 1. This is also attested by Nicolas, (£p. ad 
Episc. GaU.) and is likewise insinuated by Siviard in his life of Sw 
Calais. 



July 1.^ 9t, leonobus, b. 9 

that he constantly refused the visit of queen Ultrogoth^ wife 
of Childebert, because one of the statutes forbade to enter the 
monastery. He died in 542, and his name is mentioned this 
day in ^e Roman Martyrology. 4- portion of his relics ia 
kept in the abbey of St. Calais, but the greater part is in the 
ehapel of the castle of Blois which also bears his name. See 
the life of St Calais, written by Siviard, fifth abbot of AniU^, 
with the notes of Mabillon, and the Bollandist, t. L Jul. p. 85, 
and Martenne Ampl. ColL 1. 1. praef. p. 4, &c 

ST. LEONORUS, IN FRENCH LUNAIRE, B. 

He was of a noble family in Wales, and educated under the 
care of St, Btut ; and passing over into that part of France 
ctf ed the province of Domnone, Be founded a monastery ho* 
tween the rivers of Ranc6 and Arguenon, on a piece of ground 
which was given him by Jona, the lord of the country. His 
many extraordinary virtues drew the attention of king Childe- 
bert, who very pressingly invited him to Paris, where he was 
received by this prince and his royal consort Ultrogotha with 
every possible demonstration of the highest respect. At his 
return he had the affliction to hear that his protector Jona was 
stripped of his possessions, and murdered by Conomor. Hap- 
pily however he arrived time enough to shelter that unfortu- 
nate nobleman's son Judual from the bloody tyrant's cruelty, 
and conveyed him safely to England: whence Judual after- 
wards returned, and recovered his inheritance. This saint is 
styled bishop, though he h^d no fixed see ; for it was then an 
established custom in Brittany to honour the principal abbots 
with the episcopal dignity. The year in which St. Leonorus 
died is not known. His body was translated to a parochial 
church near St. Malo, which still retains the name of St. 
Lunaire : here his tomb is shown, which is empty, his relics 
being inclosed in a shrine. ^ The feast of his translation is on 
the 13th of October, but he is principally honoured in the 
several diocesses of Brittany on the 1st of July. He is patron 
of many churches. See the Breviary of Leon, of the abbey of 
St. Meen, <&c., also Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p* 9)| 
^4 the Martyrology of Usuard. 



10 ST. TBIERRI, A. [JULY I 

ST SIMEON, SURNAMED SALUS.* 

Hb was a native of Egypt, and born about the year 522. 
Having performed a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he retired to a 
desert near the Red Sea, where he remained twenty-nine years 
in the constant practice of a most austere penitential life. 
Here he was constantly revolving in mind that we must love 
humiliations if we would be truly humble ; that at least we 
should receive those which God sends us with resignation, and 
own them exceedingly less than the measure of our demerits ; 
that it is even sometimes our advantage to seek them ; that 
human prudence should not always be our guide in this re- 
gard ; and that there are circumstances where we ought to fol- 
low the impulse of the Holy Spirit, though not unless we have 
an assurance of his inspiration. The servant of Grod, animated 
by an ardent desire to be contemptible among men, quitted the 
desert, and at Emesus succeeded to his wish ; for by affecting 
the manners of those who want sense, he passed for a fool. He 
was then sixty years old, and lived six or seven years in that 
city, when it was destroyed by an earthquake in 588. His 
love for humility was not without reward, God having bestowed 
on him extraordinary graces, and even, honoured him with the 
gift of miracles. The year of his death is unknown. Although 
we are not obliged in every instance to imitate St. Simeon, 
and that it would be rash even to attempt it without a special 
call ; yet his example ought to make us blush, when we (con- 
sider with what an ill-will we suffer the least thing that hurts 
our pride. See Evagrius, a contemporary writer, 1. 4, c. 5 ; 
the life of this saint by Leontius, bishop of Napoli in Cyprus ; 
that of St. John the Almoner; and the Bollandists, t. 1, JuL 
p. 129. 

SAINT THIERRI, ABBOT OF MONT-D'HOR, NEAR 
RHEIMS. 

He was born in the district of Rheims. His father, Marquard* 



* Saltts m the Syriac signifies fbolLsh. 



4ui.r I. "I ST. CYBAR. 11 

ivas abandoned to every infamous disorder. An education 
formed on the best Christian principles in the house of such a 
person would more than probable be blasted by his bad ezam« 
pie ; but our saint was happily removed, and educated in learn- 
ing and piety, under the edifying example of the holy Bishop 
Bemigius, 

He married in complaisance to his relations ; but easily per- 
suaded his wife to embrace the virgin state ; and becoming him- 
self a monk, he was made superior of an abbey founded by St. 
Kemigius on Mont-d'Hor, near Eheims. Some time after he 
received holy orders, and became famous by the many extraor- 
dinary conversions he wrought through the zeal and unction 
wherewith he exhorted sinners to repentance ; among these was 
his own father, who persevered to his death under the direc- 
tion of Ms son. He succeeded also, in conjunction with St 
Eemigius, in converting an infamous house into a nunnery of 
pious virgins. According to the most common opinion, he died 
on the 1st of July, 633. It is said that King Thierri assisted 
at his funeral, and esteemed himself honoured in being one of 
his bearers to the grave. His relics, lest they should be ex- 
posed to the impiety of the Normans, were hidden under 
ground, but discovered in 976, and are still preserved in a sil- 
ver shrine. He is mentioned on this day in the Boman Mar- 
tyrology. See Mabillon, Act. 1. 1. p. 614. Bulteau, Hist, de 
rOrdre de St. Ben. 1. 1. p. 287 ; Baillet ad L Jul. and Gall. 
Christ. Nov. t. 9. p. 180. 

SAINT CYBAR, A RECLUSE AT ANGOULEME. 

Epabcus, commonly called Cybar, quitted the world in spite 
of his parents, who would hinder him to follow his vocation ; 
and retiring to the monastery of Sedaciac, in Ferigord, he 
there served God some time under Abbot Martin, and soon be- 
came known and admired for his extraordinary virtues and mi- 
racles. Wherefore, in dread of the seduction of vain-glory, he 
left his monastery to hide himself in absolute solitude. It was 
near Angouleme, with the bishop of Perigeux's and his abbot's 
leave, he shut himself up in a ceU. But his virtues were too 
striking for concealment, and the bishop of Angouleme obb'ged 
bim to accept the priesthood. Cybar was extremely austere in 



12 THE VISIT ATIOW. [JcLT 2, 

his food and apparel, especially during Lent Although a re- 
cluse, he did not refuse to admit disciples ; but he would not 
allow them manual labour, as, after his own example, he willed 
they should be constantly occupied in prayer. When any of 
them would complain for want of necessaries, he would tell 
them, with St. Jerom, that " Faith never feared hunger/ 
Nor was he deceived in his trust on Providence, as he always 
found abundance for himself and his disciples in the beneficence 
of the faithful ; insomuch that he was even enabled to redeem 
a great number of captives. He died on the 1st of July, 581, 
having lived about forty years in his cell. His relics were kept 
in the abbey church of his name until 1568, when they were 
burnt by the Huguenots. See Mabillon, Act. 1. 1. p. 267 ; Bul- 
teau, Histoire de FOrdre de St* Benott, 1. 1. p. 235 ; Gallia Chr. 
J^ov. t. 2. p. 978, 979, &c- 



JULY IL 

THE VISITATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGD^. 

From the example of Christ, his blessed Mother, and the apos- 
tles, St Thomas shows(l) that state to be in itself the mo6t 
perfect which joins together the functions of Martha and Mary, 
or of the active and contemplative life. This is endeavoured by 
those persons who so employ themselves in the service of their 
neighbour, as amidst their external employs or conversation 
often to raise their minds to God, feeding always on their hea- 
venly invisible food, as the angel did in Toby's company on 
earth* Who alao^ by the practice and love of daily reooDectioa 
and much solitude, fit themselves to i^pear in public ; and who 
by having kamed the neoessaiy art iji silence in its proper 
season, and by loving to speak little among men,(2) study to 
be in the first place their own friends, and by leflectioa andae- 
rioQS consideration to be thoroo^i]^ acquainted with them* 
selves^ and to convene oAen in heaven,(3) Such will be able 
to acquit themselTes of external employs without iRejodioe to 
their own virtue^ when called to than by duty, justice, or di»- 

(1) St. Tbo. ^ 2. (S)liiiit.arCiir.b. !.€.». (3) PluL 3, 2S|l 



•fuLT 2. J THE VISITATION, 13 

rity. They may avoid the snares of the world, and sanctify 
their conversation with men. Of this the Blessed Virgin is to 
lis a perfect model in the visit paid to her cousin Elizabeth, as 
St. Francis of Sales takes notice, who borrowed from this mys- 
tery the name which he gave to his order of nuns, who, accord- 
ing to the first plan of their institute, were devoted to visit and 
attend on the sick. 

The angel Gabriel, in the mystery of the Annunciation, in* 
formed the mother of God, that her cousin Elizabeth had mi- 
raculously conceived, and was then in the sixth month of her 
pregnancy. The Blessed Virgin, out of humility, concealed 
the favour she had received and the wonderful dignity to which 
she was raised by the incarnation of the Son of God in her 
womb ; but in the transport of her holy joy and gratitude, she 
would go to congratulate the mother of the Baptist ; with which 
resolution the Holy Ghost inspired her for his gr6at designs in 
favour of her Son's precursor not yet bom. Mary therefore 
aroscy saith St. Luke, and with haste loent into the hilly-coun* 
try into a city ofJuda ; and entering into the house of Za^ 
chary saluted Elizaheth. She made this visit to a saint, be- 
cause the company of the servants of God is principally to be 
sought, from whose example and very silence the heart will al- 
ways treasure up something, and the understanding receive 
some new light and improvement in charity. As glowing eoala 
increase their flame by contact, so is the fire of divine love 
kindled in a fervent soul by the words and example of those 
who truly love God. In this journey what lessons of humility 
does the holy Virgin give us ! She had been just saluted mo- 
ther of God, and exalted above all mere creatures, even the 
highest seraphim of heaven ; yet far from being elated with the 
thoughts of her incomprehensible dignity, she appears but the 
more humble by it. She prevents the mother of the Baptist in 
this office of charity ; the mother of God pays a visit to the 
mother of her Son's servant ; the Redeemer of the world goes 
to hid precursor. What a subject of confusion is this to the 
pride of the children of the world ! who not content with the 
rules of respect which the law of subordination requires, carry 
their vanity to an excess of ceremoniousness contrary even to 
firood manners, and to the freedom of conversation, which they 

^ . VOL. VII. B 



34 THE VISITATION. [Juhr 2. 

maEe an art of constraint and of torture both to themselves and 
others ; and in which thej seek not any duty of piety or im- 
provement in virtue, but loathsome means of foolish flattery, 
the gratiflcation of vanity, or that dissipation of mind which 
continually entertains it with trifles and idleness, and is an ene- 
my to serious consideration and virtue. 

When the office of charity called upon Mary, she thought of 
no dangers or difficulties in so painful and long a journey of 
above fourscore miles from Nazareth, in Galilee, to Hebron, a 
sacerdotal city in the mountainous country on the western side 
of the tribe of Juda. The inspired writer takes notice, that 
she went with haste or with speed and diligence, to express her 
eagerness to perfOTm this good oflSce. Charity knows not what 
sloth is, but always acts with fervour. She likewise would 
hasten her steps out of modesty, not choosing to appear abroad, 
but as compelled by necessity or charity ; not travelling out of 
vanity, idleness, or curiosity, but careful in her journey to shun 
the dissipation of the world, according to the remarks of St. 
Ambrose. Whence we may also gather with what care she 
guarded her eyes, and what was the entertainment of her pious^ 
soul with God upon the road. Being arrived at the house of 
Zachary, she entered it, and saluted Elizabeth. What a bles- 
sing did the presence of the God-man bring to this house, the 
first which he honoured in his humanity with his visit I But 
Mary is the instrument and means by which he imparts to it 
his divine benediction ; to show us that she is a channel through 
which he delights to communicate to us his graces, and to en- 
courage us to Bsk them of him through her intercession. At 
the voice of the mother of God, but by the power and grace of 
her Divine Son, in her womb, Elizabeth was filled with the 
Holy Ghost, and the infant in her womb was sanctified ; and 
miraculously anticipating the use of .reason, knew by divine in- 
spiration the mystery of the incarnation, and who it was that 
came to visit him. From this knowledge he conceived so 
great, so extraordinary a joy as to leap and exult in the womb.* 

• From the word joy used by the eraiigelist on this occasion, and trom 
the mumimous consent of the fathers, it is manifest that the holy infant 
anticipated the use of reason, and that this was not a mere natural mo- 
tion, as some Protestants have imagined, but the result of reason, and tbe 
effect of holy joy and devotion. 



July 2.] the visitatiox. 15 

If A][>rabain and all tlie ancient prophets exulted oniy to lore- 
soe in spirit that day when it was at the distance ot' so many 
ages, what wonder the little Baptist felt so great a joy to see it 
then present ! How eageriy did he desire to take np his office 
of precursor, and already to announce to men their Kedeemer, 
that he might be known and adored by all I But how do we 
think he adored and reverenced him present in his mother's 
womb ? and what were the blessings with which he was fa- 
voured by him ? He was cleansed from original sin, and filled 
with sanctifying grace, was made a prophet, .and adored the 
Messiah b^ore he was yet bom. 

At the same time Elizabeth was hfeewise filled with the Holy 
Ghost ; and by his infused light, she understood the great mys- 
tery of the Incarnation which God had wrought in Mary, whom 
humility prevented from disclosing it even to a saint, and an 
intimate friend. In raptures of astonishment, Elizabeth pro- 
nounced her blessed above all other women, she being made by 
God the instrument of his blessing to the world, and of remov- 
ing the malediction which through Eve had been entailed on 
mankind. But the fruit of her womb she called blessed in a 
sense still infinitely highei:, he being the immense source of alt 
graces, by whom only Mary herself was blessed. Elizabeth 
then turning her eyes upon herself, cried out : Whence is this 
to me that the m&ther of my Lord should come to me? She 
herself had conceived, barren &nd by a miracle ; but Mary, a 
virgin, and by the Holy Ghost ; she conceived one greater than 
the prophets, but Mary the eternal Son of God, himself true 
God. The Baptist, her son, used the like exclamation to ex- 
press his confusion and humility when Christ came to be bap- 
tized by his hands. In the like words and profound sentiments 
ought we to receive all the visits of God in his graces, espe- 
cially in the^ holy sacraments. Elizabeth styles Mary, Mother . 
of her Lord, that is, mother of God ; and she foretels that 
all things would befal her and her Son which had been spoken 
by the prophets. 

Mary hearing her own praise, sunk the lower in the abyss of 
her nothingness, and converting all good gifts to the glory of 
God, whose gratuitoas mercy had bestowed them, in the trans- 
port of her humility, and melting in an ecstasy of love and gra^ 



16 THE VISITATION. [JOJ-F 2. 

titode, burst into that admirable canticle called the Magnificat, 
It is the first recorded in the New Testament, and both in the 
noble sentiments which compose it^ and in the majesty of the 
style, surpasses all those of the ancient prophets. It is the most 
perfect model of thanksgiving and praise for the incarnation of 
the Son of Grod, and the most precious monument of the pro- 
found humility of Mary. In it she glorifies God with all the 
powers of her soul for his boundless mercies, and gives to him 
alone aU the glory. In the spiritual gladness of her heart she 
adores Her Saviour, who had cast his merciful eyes upon her 
lowliness. Though all nations will call her blessed, she declares 
that nothing is her due but abjection, and that this mystery is 
the effect of the pure power and mercy of God ; and that he 
who had dethroned tyrants, fed the hungry in the wilderness, 
and wrought so many wonders in favour of his people, had now 
vouchsafed himself to visit them, to live among them, to die for 
them, and to fulfil all things which he had promised by his 
prophets from the beginning. Mary staid with her cousin 
almost three months ; ^ter which she returned to Nazareth. 

Whilst with the Church we praise God for the mercies and 
wonders which he wrought in this mystery, we ought to apply 
ourselves to the imitation of the virtues of which Mary sets us 
a perfect example. From her we ought particularly to learn 
the lessons by which we shall sanctify our visits and conversa- 
tion ; actions which are to so many Christians the sources of 
innumerable dangers and sins. We must shun not only scur* 
rilous and profane discourse, but whatever is idle^ light, airy, 
or unprofitable; whilst we unbend our mind, we ought as 
much as possible to seek that conversation which is conducive 
to the improvement of our hearts or understandings, and to the 
advancement of virtue and solid useful knowledge. If we sufier 
our mind to be puffed up with empty wind, it will become itself 
such as is the nourishment upon which it feeds. We should 
shun the vice of talkativeness, did we but consult that detestable 
vanity itself which betrays us into this folly ; for nothing is 
more tyrannical or more odious and insupportable in company 
than to usurp a monopoly of the discourse. Nothing can more 
degrade us in the opinion of others than for us to justle, as it 
were, for the word ; to vent 9U we have in our hearts, at least a 



J 



Jui.T 2.] 8S. PEOCESSUS, &C., MM. 17 

great deal that we ought to conceal there ; and without under- 
standing ourselves, or taking a review of our meaning or words, 
to pour out embryos of half-formed conceptions, and speak of 
the most noble subjects in an undress of thoughts* What proofs 
of our vanity and folly, what disgraces, what perplexities, what 
detractions, and other evils and sins should we avoid, if we were 
but sparing and reserved in our words I If we find ourselves 
to swell with an itch of talking, big with our own thoughts, and 
impatient to give them vent, we must by silence curb this dan- 
gerous passion, and learn to be masters of our words. 

SS. PROCESSUS AND MARTINIAN, MARTYRS. 

Bt the preaching and miracles of SS. Peter and Paul at Rome, 
many were converted to the faith, and among others several 
servants and courtiers of the emperor Nero, of whom St. Paul(l) 
makes mention.* In the year 64 that tyrant first drew his 
sword against the Christians, who had in a very short time 
become very numerous and remarkable in Rome. A journey 
which he made into Greece in &Jy seems to have given a short 
respite to the Church in Rome He made a tour through the 

(1) 1 Phil. iv. 20. 

* Nero reigned the first five years with so much clemency, that once 
when he was to sign an order for the death of a condemned person, he 
said, " I wish I could not write." But his master Seneca, and Burrhus, 
the prefect of the praetorium, to whom this his moderation was owing, 
even then discovered in hun a bent to cruelty, to correct which they 
strove to give his passions another turn. ' With this view Seneca wrote 
and inscribed to hun a treatise On Clemency, which we still have. But 
botii Seneca and Burrhus connived at an adulterous intrigue in which he 
was engaged in his youth : so very defective was the virtue of the best 
among the heathen philosophers. If the tutors imagined that by giving 
up a part, they might save the rest, and by indulging him in the softer 
passions they might check those which seemed more fatal to the com. 
raonwealth, the event showed how much they were deceived by this false 
human prudence, and how much more glorious it would have been to 
have preferred death to the least moral evil, could paganism have pro- 
duced any true martyrs of virtue. The passions are nbt to be stilled by 
being soothed: whatever is allowed them is but an allurement to go 
fanher, and soon makes their tyranny unccntroUable. Of this Nero is 
an instance. For, availing himself of this indulgence, he soon gave an 
entire loose to all his desires, especially when he began to feel the dan- 
gerous pleasure of being master of his own person and actions. He 
plunged himself publicly, and without shame or constraint, into the most 
infamous debaucheries, in which such was the perversity of his heart. 



18 SS. PSOCE8SLS, &C., MU, [JvLX 2. 

chief cities of that country, attended bj a great army of singei's, 
pantomimed, and musicians, carrying instead of arms, instru- 
ments of music, masks, and theatrical dresses. He was de- 
clared conqueror at all the public diversions oyer Grreece, 
particularly at the Olympian, Isthmian, Pythian, and Nemasan 
games, and gained there one thousand eight hundred various 
sorts of crowns. Tet Greece saw its nobility murdered, the 
estates of its rieh men confiscated, and its temples plundered 
hy thia progress of £^ero. He returned to Bome only to make 
the streets of that great city again to stream with blood. The 
apostles SS. Peter and Paul, after a long imprisonment were 
crowned with martyrdom. And sooa after them their two 
faithful disciples Processus and Martinian gained the same crown. 
Their acts teU us that they were the keepers of the Mamertine 
jail during the imprisonment of SS. Peter and Paul, by whom 
they were converted and baptised. St. Gregory the Great 
preached his thirty-second homily on their festival, in a church 
in which their bodies lay, at which he says, the sick recovered 
their health, those who were possessed by evil spirits were freed, 
and those who had foresworn themselves were tormented by the 
devils. Their ancient church on the Aurelian road being fallen 
to decay. Pope Paschal I. translated their relics to St. Peter's 

that, as Siiet(»uu8 tells us, he beUeved nobody to be less Toluptuous and 
abandoned than himself, though he said they were more private in their 
crimes, and greater hypocrites; notwithstanding, at that very time. 
Home abounded with most pezfect examples of virtue and chastity among 
the Christians. 

There is a degree of foUy inseparable from vice. But this in Kero 
seemed by superlatiYe malice to degenerate into downright phrenzy. All 
his projects consisted in the extravagances of a madman ; and nothing so 
much flattered his pride as to undertake things that seemed impossible. 
He forgot all Qommon rules of decency, order, or justice. It was his 
. greatest ambition to sing or perform the part of an actor on the stage, to 
play on musical instruments in the theatre, or to drive a chariot in the 
circus. And whoever did not applaud all his performances, or had net 
the complaisance to let him carry the prize at every race or public diver- 
sion, his throat was sure to be cut, or he was reserved for some more 
barbarous death ; for cruelty was the vice which above all others has 
rendered his nan^e detestable. At the instigation of Foppsea, a most 
infamous adulteress, he caused his mother Agrippina to be slain in the 
year 58, and from that time it seemed to be his chief delight to glut his 
isavage mind with the slaughter of the bravest, the most virtuous, and 
tbo most noble persons of tibie universe, especially of those who were the 
nearest to him. He put to death his wife Octavia after many years ill- 
,«8age, and he cut off almost all the most illustrious heads of the empire. 



July 2.] st. otho, b. c. 19 

church on the Vatican hill, as Anastasius informs us. Their 
names occur in the ancient Martyrologies. See Tillemont^ 
Hist. EccL t'l. p. 179* and Hist, des Emp. Crevier, &c, 

ST. OTHO, BISHOP OF BAMBERG, CONFESSOE. 

Hs was a native of Swabia, in Germany, and being a clergy- 
man eminent for piety and learning, was chosen by the emperor 
Henry lY. to attend his sister Judith in quality of chaplain 
when she was married to Boleslas III. duke of Poland, that 
state remaining deprived of the royal dignily* from the year 
1079 till it was restored in 1295, in favour of Premislas IL 
After the death of that princess, Otho returned, and was made 
by Henry lY. his chancellor. That prince caused the scab and 
crosses of every deceased bishop and great abbot to be delivered 
to him, and he sold them to whom he pleased. This notorious 
simony and oppression of the Church was zealoudy condemned 
by the pope, in opposition to wh<Mn the emperor set up the anti- 
pope Guibert Otho laboured to bring his prince to sentiments 
of repentance and submission^ and refused to approve lus schism 
or other crimes. Notwithstanding whiclv so great was the 
esteem which the emperor had for his virtue, that resolving to 
make choice at least of one good bishop, he nominated him 
bishop of Bamberg in 1103. The saint, notwithstanding the 
schism, went to Borne and received his confirmation together 
with the pall from Pope Paschal IL He laboured to extinguish 
the schism, and to obviate the mischieft which it produced ; and 
for this purpose he displayed his eloquence and abilities in the 
diet at Ratisbon in 1104. Henry Y. succeeding his father in 
1 106, continued to foment the schism ; yet inherited the esteem 
of his predecessor for our saint, though he always adhered to the 
holy see, and was in the highest credit with all the popes of his 
time ; so strongly does virtue command respect even in its ad- 
versaries, and such is the power of meekness in disarming the 
fiercest tyrants. St. Otho joined always with the functions of 
his charge the exercises of an interior life, in which he was an 
admirable proficient He made many pious foundations, calling 
them inns which we erect on our road to eternity. 

* On aooouDt of th£ murder of St. Stanislas, slain Poleslaa II 



20 8T. MONXGONDES. j^JuLY 2. 

Boleslas lY. duke of Poland, fion of thiat Boleslas who had 
married the sister of Henry lY. having succeeded his elder 
brother Ladislas 11. and conquered part of Fomerania, entreated 
St* Otho to undertake a mission among the idolaters of that 
country. The good bishop having settled his own diocess in 
^ood order, and obtained of Pope Honorius 11. a commission 
for that purpose, took with him a considerable number of zealous 
priests and catechists, and passed through Poland into Prussia, 
and thence into eastern Pomerania. He was met by Uratislas 
IL duke of Upper Pomerania, who received the sacrament of 
baptism with the greater part of his people in 1124. St. Otho 
returned to Bamberg for Easter the following year, having ap- 
pointed priests every where to attend the new converts, and 
finish the work he had so happily begun. The towns of Stetin 
and JuHn having again relapsed into idolatry, St Otho, with a 
second blessing of Pope Honorius IL relumed into Pomerania in 
1128, brought those cities back to the faith, and through in- 
numerable hardships and dangers carried the light of the gospel 
into Noim, and other remote barbarous provinces. He returned 
again to the care of ];iis own flock, amidst which he died the death 
of the saints on the 30th of June, 1 139- He was buried on the 
2d of July, on which day he is commemorated in the Boman 
Martyrology. He was canonized by Clement III. in 1189 
The rich shrine which contains his sacred remains is preserved 
in the electoral treasury at Hanover. See Thesaurus Beli- 
quiarum Electoris Brunswico-Luneburgensis, folio, printed at 
Hanover in 1713. See also the accurate life of this saint in the 
latter editions of Surius, and in Acta Sanctorum, by the Bol<* 
landists, t. 1. JuliL 

ST. MONEGONDES, A KECLUSE AT TOUBS. 

She was a native of Chartres, and honourably married. She 
had two daughters, who were the objects of her happiness 
and most ardent desires in this world till God was pleased, in 
mercy towards her, to deprive her of them both by death. Her 
grief for this loss was at first excessive, and by it she began to 
be sensible that her attachment to them had degenerated into 
immoderate passion ; though she had not till then perceived the 
disorder of a fondness which had much weakened in her breast 



JCLY 2.] ST. OUDOCSUS, B. 21 

the love of God, and the disposition of perfect confonnitj to 
his holy will ahove all things and in all things. A fear of of- 
fending God obliged herio overcome this grief, and she con- 
fessed the divine mercj in the cure of her inordinate affections 
which stood in need of so severe a remedy. However, resolving 
to bid adieu to this transitory treacherous world, she, with her 
husband's consent, built herself a cell at Chartres, in which she 
shut herself up, serving God in great austerity and assiduous 
prayer. She had no other furniture than a mat strewed on the 
floor on which she took her short repose, and she allowed her- 
self no other sustenance than coarse oat bread with water which 
was brought her by a servant. She afterwards removed to 
Tours, where she continued the same manner of life in a cell 
which she built near St. Martin's. Many fervent women join- 
ing her, this cell grew into a famous nunnery, which has been 
since changed into a collegiate church of secular canons. St. 
Monegondes lived many years a model of perfect sanctity, and 
died in 670. She is named in the Roman Martyrology. 

The loss of dear friends is a sensible affliction, under which 
something may be allowed to the tenderness of nature. Insen- 
sibility is no part of virtue. The bowels of saints are always 
tender, and far from that false apathy of which the stoics boast- 
ed. " I condemn not grief for the death of a friend," says St. 
Chrysostom,(l) but excess of grief. To moiu*n is a part of 
nature ; but to mourn with impatience is to injure your de- 
parted friend, to offend God, and to hurt yourself. K you 
give thanks to God for his mercies and benefits, you glorify him, 
honour the deceased, and procure great advantage for yourself." 
Motives of faith must silence the cries of nature. ** How ab- 
surd is it to call heaven much better than this earth, anil yet to 
mourn for those who depart thither in peace," says the same 
father in another place.(2) 

ST. OUDOCEUS, 

THIRD BISHOF OP LANDAFF, IN ENGLAND. 

This saint, dedicated to God from his infancy by his parents, 

(1) Serm. v. de Laz. t. 1, p. 765. 
(2) St. Chrys. 1. I, ad Yid. Junior, t. 1, p. 341. 



22 ST. FHOCAS, M. [JuLY 3. 

v/ai? reared in Christian principles under the inspection of his 
uncle St. Thdiau, bishop of Landaff ; and sncceeded him in 
this sec about the year 580.* Maurie, king of Glamorgan, 
held him in the highest veneration, and assisted him in all his 
endeavours to promote the glory of God ; being, however, ex- 
communicated by the saint for assassinating a prince called 
Cynedu, he, by his humble submission and penance, was at 
length restored to the communion of the church. St. Oudoceus 
dying about the end of the sixth century, is mentioned lA the 
liln^lish Calendars on the 2nd of July. See Ushers Antiquit 
Bntan. p. 291 ; Wharton, Anglia Sacra, t. 2, p. 669 ; Alford, 
in Anr^al. and Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 89. 



JULY IIL 

ST. PHOCAS, GARDENER, M. 

rroa Hfl panegyric, written by St. Asterius, and another by St. Chry- 
sostom, t. 2, ed. Ben. p. 704. Buinart, p. 627. 

A. D. 303. 

Phocus dwelt near the gate of Sinope, a city of Pontus, 
and lived by cultivating a garden, which yielded him a hand- 
some subsistence, and wherewith plentifully to relieve the indi- 
gent. In his humble profession he imitated the virtue of the 
most holy anchorets, and seemed in part restored to the happy 
condition of our first parents in Eden. To prune the garden 
without labour and toil was their sweet employment and plea- 
sure. Since their sin, the earth yields not its fruit but by the 
sweat of our brow. But still, no labour is more useful or neces- 
sary, or more natural to man, and better adapted to maintain 
in him vigour of mind or health of body than that of tillage ; 
nor does any other part of the universe rival the innocent 
qharms which a garden presents to all our senses, by the fra- 

• According to the Registers of Landaff, quoted by Usher, St. Oudo- 
ceus was son of Budic II. prince of Cornwall, in Armorica; and' was 
committed to the care of St. Theliau, when he removed to Armorica. 
But Usher is mistaken, as he dates this fact at 596. For we learn from 
St. Gregory of Tours that Thierri, son of Budic, was made prince of 
Cornwall in 577> and that his £Ather was dead a long time before. 



July 3.] st. phocas, m. *^3 

grancy of its flowers, by the riches of its produce, and the 
sweetness and variety of its fruits ; by the melodious concert of 
its musidaiis, by the worlds of wonders which every stem, leaf, 
and fibre exhibit to the contemplation of the inquisitive philoso- 
pher, and hj that beauty and variegated lustre of colours which 
clothe the numberless tribes of its smallest inhabitants, and 
adorn its shining landscapes, vying with the brightest splendour 
of the heavens, and in a single lily surpassing the dazzling 
lustre with which Solomon was surrounded on hia throne in the 
midst of all his glory. And what a field for contemplation does 
a garden offer to our view in every part, raising our souls to 
God in . raptures of love and praise, stimulating us to fervour, 
by the fruitfulness with which it repays our labour, and multi- 
plies the seed it receives ; and exciting us to tears of compunc- 
tion for our insensibility to God by the barrenness with which 
it is changed into a frightful desert, unless subdued by assiduous 
toil ! Our saint joining prayer with his labour, found in lus 
garden itself an instructive book, and an inexhausted fund of 
holy meditation. His house was open to all strangers and tra- 
vellers who had no lodging in the place ; and after having for 
many years most liberally bestowed the fruit of his labour on the 
poor, he was found worthy also to give his life fw: Christ. 
Though his profession was obscure, he was well known over 
the whole country by the reputation of his charity and virtue. 

When a cruel persecution, probably that of Dioclesian in 303, 
was suddenly raised in the church, Phocas was immediately 
impeached as a Christian, and such was the notoriety of his 
pretended crime, that the formality of a trial was superceded 
by the persecutors, and executi(mers were despatched with an 
order to kill him on the spot wherever they should find him. 
Arriving near Sinope, they would not enter the town, but 
stopping at his house without knowing it, at his kind invitation 
they took up their lodging with him. Being charmed with his 
courteous entertainment, they at supper disclosed to him the 
errand upon which they were sent, and desired him to inform 
them where this Phocas could be most easily met with ? The 
servant of God, without the least surprise, told them he was 
well acquainted with the man, and would give them certain in- 
telligence of him next morning. After they were retired to 



24 ST. PHOCAs, M, [July 3 

bed he dug a grave, prepared everything for his burial, and 
spent the night in disposing his soul for his last hour. When 
it was day he went to his guests, and told them Fhocas was 
found, and in their power whenever thej pleased to apprehend 
him. Glad at this news, they inquired where he was. '* He is 
liere present," said the martyr, " I myself am the man." Struck 
at his undaunted resolution, and at the composure of his mind, 
they stood a considerable time as if they had been motionless, 
nor could they at first think of imbruing their hands Iq the 
blood of a person in whom they discovered so heroic a virtue, 
and by whom they had been so courteously entertained. He 
indirectly encouraged them, saying, that as for himself, he 
looked upon such a death as the greatest of favours, and his 
highest advantage. At length recovering themselves from their 
surprise, they struck off his head. The Christians of that city, 
after peace was restored to the church, built a stately church 
which bore his name, and was famous over aU the East. In it 
were deposited the sacred relics, though some' portions of them 
were dispersed in other churches. 

St. Asterius, bishop of Amasea about the year 400, pro- 
nounced the panegyric of this martyr, on his festival, in a 
church, probably near Amasea, which possessed a small part of 
his remains. In this di8course(l) he i^ys, " that Phocas from 
the time of his death was become a pillar and support of the 
churches on earth : he draws all men to his house ; the high- 
ways are filled with persons resorting from every country to tiiis 
place of prayer. The magnificent church which (at Sinope) is 
possessed of his body, is the comfort and ease of the afflicted, 
the health of the sick, the magazine plentifully supplying the 
wants of the poor. J£ in any other place, as in this, some small 
portion of his relics be found, it also becomes admirable, and 
most desired by aU Christians." He adds, that the head of St. 
Fhocas was kept in his beautiful church in Rome, and says, 
** The Eomans honour him by the concourse of the whole peo- 
ple in the same manner they do Peter and Paul." He bears 
testimony that the sailors in the Euxine, JBgean, and Adriatic 
seas, and in the ocean, sing hymns in his honour, and that the 

(1) P. 178. ed. Combefis. 



July 3.*] st, gunthieew, a. 25 

martyr has often succoured and preserved them ; and that the 
portion of gain which they in every voyage set apart for the 
poor is called Fhocas's part He mentions that a certain king 
of barbarians had sent his royal diadem set with jewels, and 
his rich helmet a present to the church of St. Fhocas, praying ^ 
the martyr to offer it to the Lord in thanksgiving for the king- 
dom which his Divine Majesty had bestowed upon him. St. 
Chrysostom received a portion of the relics of St Phocas, not 
at Antioch, as Baronius thought, and as Fronto le Due and 
Baillet doubt, but at Constantinople as Montfaucon demon- 
8trates.(l) On that solemn occasion the city kept a great fes- 
tival two days, and St Chrysostom preached two sermons, only 
one of which is eztant(2) In this he says, that the emperors 
left their palaces to reverence these relics, and strove to share 
with the rest in the blessings Tj^hich they procure men. The 
emperor Phocas built afterwards another great church at Con- 
stantinople in honour of this martyr, and caused a considerable 
part of his relics to be translated thither. The Greeks often 
style St Phocas hiero-martyr or sacred martyr, which epithet 
they sometimes give to eminent mart3rrs who were not bishops, 
as Ruinart demonstrates against Baronius. 

ST. GUTHAGON, RECLUSE. 

He was an Lrishman of royal blood, who, forsaking the world 
to labour in securing eternal happiness, led a penitential, con- 
templative life at Oostkerk, near Bruges, in Flanders, with B. 
Gillon, an individual companion. He was famed for his emi- 
nent sanctity, attested by miracles after his death. His shrine 
is there held in veneration, and a chapel built in his honour. 
He is said to have lived in the eighth century. Gerald, bishop 
of Toumay, translated the relics of this saint on the 3rd of 
July, 1059, in the presence of the abbots of Dun, Oudenbourg, 
and Ececkout ; and on the 1st of October, 1444, they were 
visited by Nicholas, suffiragan bishop of Toumay. See Colgan 
in MSS. and Molanus, p. 136. 

ST. GUNTHIERN, ABBOT IN BRITTANY. 
This saint flourished in the sixth century. He was a prince in 
I) Not ib. t 2, p. 704. Op. St. Chrys. (2) T. 2, ed. Ben. p. 704. 



26 ST. BERTH A.N, B. [JuLY 3- 

^yales, which be left in his youth, and retired into Armorica 
to hve a recluse. He stopt at the isle of Groie, which is about 
a league from the mouth of the Blavet. Grallon was then lord 
of the isle, and was so edified at his conversation, that he be- 
stowed on him, for founding a monastery, the land between the 
confluence of the rivers Isol and Elle, For which reason even 
to this day, the abbey is called Kemperle, which in the old 
British language signifies the Conflux of Elle. One year that 
a prodigious swarm of insects devoured the com, Guerech I., 
count of Yannes, dreading a famine, deputed three persons of 
quality to engage the saint's prayers to God for turning away 
t^je scourge. Gunthiem sent him water which he had blessed, 
wtiich he desired to be sprinkled over the fields, and the insects 
were destroyed. The count, in gratitude for this extraordinary 
blessing, gave him the land near the river Blavet, which was 
then called Yemac ; but is now known by the name of Her-» 
vegnac or Chervegnac The saint, it is thought, died at Kem- 
perle. During the incursions of the Normans, his body was 
concealed in the isle of Groic. It was discovered in the eleventh 
century, and brought to the monastery of Kemperle,* which 
now belongs to the Benedictin Ordq^. St. Gunthiem is patron 
of this abbey as well as of many other churches and chapels in 
Brittany. He is mentioned in ancient calendars on the 29th of 
June, but the modems place his feast on the 3rd of July. See 
Lobineau, Yies des SS. de Bretagne, p. 49. 

ST. BERTRAN,t BISHOP OF MANS. 

He seems to have been born in Foitou, and having dedicated 
himself to the service of the church, he received the tonsure in 
the city of Tours. St. Germain, bishop of Paris, invited him 
to his diocess, formed him to virtue, and, in token of esteem 
for his merit, made him his archdeacon. After the death of 
Baldegisil, an imworthy prelate, who sought only to enrich 
himself by the spoils of his church, St. Bertran was chosen his 
successor in the diocess of Mans in 586. At first he met some 



• The abbey of Kemperle is three leagues from Port-Louis and eight 
from QuiiDpcr, 
t In Latin Berti Cnumms.. Bertnumus ; not Betrandus* 



JULT 4.] ST. ULRIC, B. C. 2? 

opposition from the corrupt manners ot his people, but zealous 
endeavours to restore them to virtue had soon the deserved suc- 
cess. By his prudence he saved the state from a war which 
threatened it from "Waroc and Windimacle, princes of Brittany. 
He was called to the court of Gontran, king of Orleans and 
Burgundy, to negotiate certain interesting matters regarding 
the church. He built, endowed, and repaired a great number 
of hospitals and churches. His will, which he made in 615, is 
an esteemed piece of church-antiquity. In it are many consi- 
derable legacies to churches and monasteries. But what is sin- 
gularly remarkable, we see by it, that the holy bishop enjoyed 
on every occasion the favour and protection of Fredegonda. 
During the troubles occasioned by the civil wars in France, St, 
Bertran was three several times banished from his diocess. This 
introduced many disorders among his people, which he happily 
removed with the assistance of Clotaire, who, after long strug- 
gles, at length united to his kingdom those of Burgundy and 
Austrasia. It is believed that he died the 30th of June, 623. 
But he is honoured on the 3rd of July, being the day on which 
his relics were translated. See St. Gregory of Tours, Hist. 
1. 8. c. 39. and 1. 9. c. 18 ; and the saint's wiU, published with 
excellent notes by Papebroke, 6 Jun. and Baillet, under the 
3rd of July. 



JULY IV. 

ST. ULRIC, BISHOP OF AUSBURG, CONFESSOR. 

From his accurate life, Written by Gerard of Ausburg, in Mabillon, saec. 
2, Ben. &c. See the BoUandists. 

A. D. 973. 

St. UiiMC or Udalric was son of Count Hucbald, and of Thiet- 
berga, daughter of Burchard, one of the first dukes of Higher 
Germany. He was born in 893, and was educated from seven 
years of age in the abbey of St. GaL Guiborate, a holy virgin, 
who lived a recluse near that monastery, foretold him that be 
should one day be a bishop, and should meet witb severe trials. 



28 ST. ULBic, B. c. [July 4. 

bat exhorted him to courage and constancy under them. So 
delicate and tender was the complexion of the joung nobleman 
that all who knew him judged he could not live long. But re-^ 
gularity and temperance preserved a Ufe, and strengthened a 
constitution which excessive tenderness of pajnents, care of phy 
sicians, and all other arts would probably have the sooner worn 
out and destroyed : which Cardinal Lugo shows to have often 
happened by several instances in austere religious Orders.(l) 
The recovery of the young count was looked upon as miracu- 
lous. As he grew up, his sprightly genius, his innocence and 
sincere piety, and the sweetness of his temper and manners 
charmed the good monks ; and he had already made a consi- 
derable progress in his studies when his father removed him to 
Ausburg, where he placed him under the care of Adalberon, 
bishop of that city. The prelate, according to the custom of 
those times, made him his chamberlain when he was only sixteen 
years old, afterwards promoted him to the first orders, and in- 
stituted him to a canonry in his cathedraL The young clergy- 
man was well apprized of the dangers, and instructed in the 
duties of his state, which he set himself with all his strength 
faithfully to discharge. Prayer and study filled almost all his 
time, and the poor had much the greater share of his revenues. 
During a pilgrimage which he made to Rome, this bishop died, 
and was succeeded by Hiltin. After his return he continued 
his former manner of life, advancing daily in fervour and de- 
votion, and in the practices of humility and mortification. He 
was most scrupulously careful to shun as much as possible the 
very shadow of danger, especially with regard to temptations 
against purity, and it was his usual saying to others : *^ Take 
away the fuel, and you take away the flame/' 

Hiltin dying in 924, Henry the Fowler, king of Germany, 
nominated our saint, who was then thirty-one years of age, to 
the bishopric of Ausburg, and he was consecrated on Holy 
Innocents* day. The Hungarians and Sclavonians had lately 
pillaged that country, murdered the holy recluse St. Guiborate, 
whom the Germans honour as a martyr, plundered the city at 
Ausburg, and burnt the cathedral. The new bishop, not to 
lose time, built for the present a^small church, in which he 
(1) Lugo in Decal. See Less. 1 de Yaletud. 



July 4.] st. clrk:, b, c. 29 

assembled the people, who ixt their tiniyersal distress stood iik 
extreme need of instruction, comfort, and relief: aH which they 
found so abundantly in Ulric, that every one thought all the 
calamities they had suffered sufficiently repaired by the happi- 
ness they enjoyed in possessing such a pastor. He excused 
himself from attending the court, knowing of what importance 
the presence of a bishop is to his flock, for which he is to give 
a severe account tc GtxL The levying and care of his troops, 
which in quality of prince of the empire he was obliged to send 
to the army, he intrusted to a nephew, devoting himself entirelj 
to his spiritual functions. He rose every morning at three 
o'clock to assist with his canons at matins and lauds : after which 
he recited the psalter, litany, and other prayers. At break of 
day he said in choir the office for the dead, and prime, and was 
present at high mass. After tierce and long private devotions 
he said mass. He only left the church after none, and then 
went to the hospital, where he comforted the sick, and every 
day washed the feet of twelve poor people, giving to each of 
them a liberal alms. The rest of the day he employed in in- 
structing, preaching, visiting the sick, and discharging all the 
duties of a vigilant pastor. He took his frugal meal only in the 
evening before complin. In this the poor always shared with 
liim, for whom and for strangers meat was served up, except 
on fast-days, though he never touched it himself. He allowed 
himself very little time for sleep, lay on straw, and never used 
any linen. In Lent he redoubled his austerities and devotion<t. 
He made every year the visit of his whole diocess, and held a 
synod of his clergy twice a year. Upon the death of Henry 1. 
Otho I. succeeded in the kingdom of Germany, between whom 
and his unnatural son Luitolf, a civil war broke out. St. Ulric 
strenuously declared himself against the rebels, who on that 
account harassed and plundered his diocess. But Arnold. 
<ount palatine, being slain before the walls of Ratisbon, St. 
Uiric obtained the king's pardon for his son and the rest of the 
rebels. 

The saint had fenced the city of Ausburg with strong walla, 
and erected several fortresses to secure the people from the in- 
roads of barbarians. This was a precaution of the utmost im- 
portance; for the H-^ingnrians made a second incursion, and 
vol- vv. Q 



30 8T. ODO, B. C» [JtlliX 4 

laid siege to Aosbvo^. The good paster >contintted in prayer, 
like Moses on tbe mountain, for his people, whom he convened 
in frequent processions and devotions. His prayers were heard, 
and the barbarians, being seized with a sudden panic of fear, 
raised tbe siege and fled in great coofiision. They were met 
and cut to pieces by Otho, who, in 96^> was crowned emperor 
by the pope. St. DTric rebuilt ikis cathedral in a stately man- 
ner, and dedicated it again to God in honour of St.^ Afra, the 
celebrated patroness of Ausburg, in which city she received the 
crown of martyrdom in the persecution of Dioclesian. She is 
eommemorated on the 5th of August The saint earnestly de- 
sired to resign his bishopric, a^d retire to the monastery of St.. 
Gal, sometime before his death ; but met with too great oppo- 
sition. He made a second journey of devotion to Borne, and 
was received with extraordinary marks of esteem by the pope, 
and at Ravenna by the emperor and his pious empress* Otha 
I. died in May, 973^ and from that time the saint^s health be- 
gan sensibly to decline. During his last sickness he redouUed 
his fervour. In his agony he caused himself to be laid on ashes 
blessed and strewed on the floor in the form of a cross, in 
which posture he died amidst the prayers of his clergy, on the 
4th of July, 973> being about fourscore years old, and having 
been bishop flfty years. He was buried in the church of St. 
Afra, which at present bears his name. His sanctity was at- 
tested by miracles, and he was canonized by Pope John XV. 
in 993. 

The saints living by faith had recourse to God in all their 
actions, and by that means drew down his blessing on their un- 
dertakings. It was the saying of a great man, that persons who 
expose themselves to many dangers and sins, often meet with 
temporal miscarriages,(l) like the Israelites when they were 
deceived by the Gabaonites, because they neglect to recommend 
their enterprises to God by fervent prayer and to consult his 
will. 

ST. ODO, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, C. 

He was born in the province of the East- Angles of noble 

Danish parents, who about the year 870, had accompanied In- 

(l) Jo«. ix. U. 



July 4.] st. odo, b. c. 31 

guar and Hubba in their barbarous expedition, and had ac- 
quired a peaceable plentiful settlement in that part of England. 
Odo from a child loved the Christian religion, freqnented the 
churches, and often spoke with honour of Christ to his parents; 
for which he was frequently severely chastised by them, and at 
length disinherited and turned out of doors. The young noble- 
man, rejoicing to see himself naked, and found worthy to suffer 
something for God, chose him for his inheritance ; and, fearing 
lest by sloth he should lose the advantages he had already 
gained, resolved to give himself wholly to God, and embrace an 
ecclesiastical state. He was enabled to perform his studies by 
the liberality of the most noble and virtuous duke Athelm, who 
seems to have been son of the ealderman Athelm, who in the 
reign of king Ethelwulf, being assisted by the Dorsetshire men, 
had defeated the Danes near Portland, in 838. The duke or 
governor Athelm was one of the principal noblemen of England 
in the reign of king Alfred, and in the Saxon annals is styled 
ealderman of Wiltshire. Being a most religious man he was 
much taken with the piety of Odo. In 887 he made a devout 
pilgrimage to Bome, and carried thither the alms of king Alfred 
and 6f the West Saxons, as the Saxon Annals testify. He had 
before that time procured Odo to be ordained priest, and made 
use of him for his confessarius, as did many others who belonged 
to the court. He recited every day the church office with him, 
as it was then customary for pious persons among the laity to 
do. Our saint accompanied him to Bome in quality of chap- 
lain. On the road this nobleman fell sick of a fever, which in 
seven days reduced him almost to extremity. But Odo, after 
praying for him, presented him a glass of wine on which he had 
made the sign of the cross, bidding him have an entire confi- 
dence in God. Athelm had no sooner drank the glass, than he 
found himself perfectly cured, and able to get on horseback. 
Athelm died in 898. 

Odo continued to be caressed as much as ever, and was often 
employed by the kings Alfred and his son Edward the Elder, 
who began his reign in 901. King Alfred had by his wisdom 
and prowess raised the English monarchy to the highest pitch of 
grandeur, and the Danes who, from the time of the martyrdom 
v'f St. Edmund, were possessed of part of Northumberland, and 



32 ST. ono, fl. c. [JujLT 4. 

of the kingdom of the East- Angles, were confined within tho»i« 
territories, and restrained in the eastern provinces from making 
inroads by the famous ditch running from the northern fens to 
the river Ouse, and into Suffolk, separating Mercia and the 
kingdom of the East- Angles, called at this day, from a town of 
that name, Reech-dike, and by the common people Devil's-dike- 
This great ditch, mentioned by the Saxon Annals in the reign 
of Edward the Elder, seems made about this time. When the 
Danes broke the truce, king Edward entirely subdued them in 
the country of the East- Angles ; he also defeated the Scots, 
Cumbrians, and Welch. He built towns and fortresses in many 
parts of the kingdom, as Ethelred, earl of Mercia, and after his 
death his courageous and virtuous widow Ethelfleda, daughter 
to king Alfred, did in the middle counties. But nothing reflects 
greater honour on the name of this king, and on his wise coun- 
sellors than the body or code of laws which he added to those 
of his father Alfred,(l) in enacting which the Danish king of 
the East-Angles, Guthrun, or rather Outhmn's successor, Eoric, 
concurred. In these laws only pecuniary fines are prescribed 
for theft) and most other crimes ; for which capital punishments 
were not generally instituted before the thirteenth ceritury. 
Edward the Elder reigned twenty-four years, and dying in 925 
was buried in the monastery which his father Alfred had 
founded at Winchester. 

Athelstan, his eldest son, reigned fourteen years with great 
prudence and valour. His father Edward having extinguished 
the kingdom of the Danes among the East- Angles, Athelstan 
expelled them out of Northumberland ; obliged the Welch to 
pay him a considerable annual tribute ; and in 938 vanquished 
also the Scots. For their king, Constantine, protecting the 
Danes in Northumberland under their last king Guthfrith and 
his son Anlaff, drew on himself the arms of king Athelstan, 
who marched with his victorious army to the very north of 
Scotland, in 934, as William of Malmesbury relates. In the 
same year Constantine invaded England with a great army of 
Scots, Danes, and Irish, another Anlaff, king of Dublin and 
some of the W^tem Islands, coming over to his assistance. 

(I) See these laws in Spelman, Cone. t. 1, and Wilkins, Cone. Brit. 
t.l. 



July 4.] sr. odo, b, a 33 

Athelatan met them at Brunanburgh, a place at present un- 
known, near the Humber, and with his valiant West-Saxons 
attacking AnlafT, whilst his cousin Turketil, at the head of the 
Londoners, fell on the Scots, he gained a most complete victory, 
which he ascribed to the intercession of St. John of Beverley. 
Having on the other side driven the Welch out of Exeter, he 
founded there a noble monastery, which wus afterwards made 
the cathedral, when the bishoprick was removed from Crediton 
to that city. Alfred of Beverley calls Athelstan the first mo- 
narch of all England, though out of modesty he never assumed 
that title, but left it to his brother Edred to take ; for after 
the extinction of the Danish kingdom in Northumberland, and 
the death of Ethelfieda, countess of Mercia, there remained no 
petty sovereign in his dominions, which had always been the 
case from Egbert to his time. Athelstan also subdued the 
Welch and the Scots, and according to our historians made not 
only the former, but likewise the latter tributary, though this 
the Scottish writers deny with regaxd to their country. King 
Athelstan was a great lover of peace, piety, and religion : he 
was devout, afPable to all, learned himself, and a patron of 
learned men ; and he was as much admired and beloved by his 
subjects for his humility and humanity as he was feared by ene- 
mies and rebels for his military skill and invincible courage. 
He framed many good laws, in which he inflicted chiefly pecu- 
niary penalties for crimes ; for which purpose he fixed for every 
oflence a value or price according to every one's rank and es- 
tate. This great king reposed an entire confidence in the pru- 
dence and sanctity of his chaplain, and not content to make use 
of his counsels in his most weighty concerns, he carried him 
with him in his war, that he might always animate himself to 
virtue by his example and holy advice. The kingdom of the 
West Saxons was for sometime all comprised under the diocess 
of Winchester, till in the reign of king Ina, about the year 706, 
the see of Shirbume was erected, and in 905 that of Wilton for 
Wiltshire, though these two sees were again united and fixed 
at Salisbury in 1046. King Athelstan about the beginning of 
hifi reign procured St. Odo to be chosen second bishop of Wil- 
ton, according to Le Neve's Fasti, though some say of Shir- 
bume. Nevertheless, the saint was obliged often to attend the 



34 «T. ODD, B. c, July 4. 

kin», and was present at the great battle uf Brunanburgh, 
against the Danes, Scots, and Irish, in which Athelstan, being 
attacked hy Anlaff and almost surrounded by enemies, having 
also broken or lost his sword, called aloud for help. St. Od(f 
ran in upon this occasion, and first discovered to the king a 
sword hanging by his side, which was thought to have been 
sent from heaven, with which, animated by the saint, he 
gained one of the most glorious and advantageous victories that 
ever was won by the English nation. 

Athelstan dying in 941, left the crown to his brother Ed- 
mund, at that time only eighteen years of age. This prince re- 
duced a second time the Northumbers and Anlaff the Dane, 
who had again revolted ; and governed by the wise counsels of 
St. Odo, he enacted many wholesome laws, especially to prevent 
family feuds and murders. By one of these it is ordained that 
if several thieves combine together, the eldest shall be hanged, 
the rest whipped thrice. This seems the first law by which 
robbery was punished in England by death. This king was re- 
ligious and valiant, and being a judge of men, reposed an entire 
confidence in St. Odo, who, in 942, was translated to the me- 
tropolitan see of Canterbury. The saint had consented to his 
first promotion with great reluctance. But he opposed the se- 
cond a long time with a dread which saints are usually filled 
with on such occasions. He alleged first, his unworthiness, 
secondly, the canons against translations, and thirdly, that he 
was no monk. His two first difficulties were overruled ; and 
as to the third, he at length consented to receive the Benedictin 
habit from the hands of the abbot of Fleuri, now St. Bennet*s on 
the Loire, a house then famous for it5 regularity.. The abbot 
was therefore invited into England for this purpose, or accord- 
ing to others, St. Odo travelled to Fleuri, and received the 
habit from his hands ; after which he was installed archbishop^ 
King Edmund was assassinated by Leof, an outlawed thief; 
who had insolently seated himself at the king's table, in a great 
banquet which the king gave on the feast of St. Austin, arch- 
bishop of Canterbury, in 948. 

Edmund left two sons very young, Edwy and Edgar, but was 
succeeded by his brother Edred, in whose days happened the 
following miracle, related by Eadmer in his exact life of ou^ 



July 4.] st. odo, b. c. 36 

saint; also bj William of Malmesburj, and the Chronicles 
of the Chnrch of Canterbtirj, quoted in Parker's British Anti- 
quities, and. Du Pin.(l) Some of the clergy at Canterbury 
being tempted to doubt of the real presence of Christ's body in 
the holy eucharist, Si, Odo begged by his prayers that God 
would be pleased mercifully to demonstrate to them the truth of 
this sacred mystery ; and at this petition, whilst he was saying 
mass in his cathedral, at the breaking of the host, blood wtaA seen ' 
by all the people distilHng from it into the chalice ; the saint 
called up to the altar all those who laboured under the tempta- 
tion before-mentioned, and others then present to bear witness 
to the miracle. Full of gratitude, they afterwards celebrated 
with their archbishop a solemn thanksgiving for this wonderful 
miracle, in which Christ had manifested faimseAf visible in the 
flesh to their corporal eyes. King Edred died in 965, after a lin- 
gering illness, which he sanctified by the most edifying patience 
and acts of devotion, having reigned nine years and a half. He 
took the title of king of Great Britain, as he styles himself in a 
charter which he gave to the abbey of Crbyland, recited by In- 
gulphus. In another, given to the abbey of Reculver,{2) he 
calls himself Monarch of ali Engiandi 

Edwy, the eldest son of king Edmund, succeeded next to the 
throne, and was crowned at Kingston by St Odo. But being 
a youth abandoned to excessive lust, after the coronation dinner 
he left his bishops and nobles to go to his mistress Ethelgiva, 
who was his own near relation. St. Dun^tan, then abbot of 
Glastenbury, reproved him by order of St. Odo, but was 
banished by the tyrant, and the monks turned out of Glasten- 
bury and many other monasteries. St. Odo exerted his zeal 
against the adulteress, but the king repaired to Gloucester 
when she fled to that city. The enormities of his reign 
stirred up the Mercians and Northumbets to take up arms 
against him, and to crown his younger brother Edgar. Edwy 
retained the kingdom of the West- Saxons till his death, which 
happened in 959/ according to Florence of Worcester and 
Laud's copy of the Saxon annals. 

Edgar exceedingly honoured St. Odo, recalled St. Dunstan, 
aad advanced him to the bishopric of Worcester. He reigned 

(!) CeDt. 10. (2) Extant in Monast. Anglic. App. vol. 1. 



36 rr. odo^ b. c. [Jciy 4. 

ftboui iixtaen jetn io uninterrupted peaee and prosperitj, till 
hit death in ^5« belored bj aU fatf aobjeetfy and revered by 
foreigner!. William of Jialmeabiirj and Florence of Wor- 
eeiter mention hu two great fleets^ said to have eonsisted of 
three thooiand six hnndred ahipa, with which he jearlj 
fcoared the Britiah seas ; and he had aix or eight pettj kings 
often to wait on him, namelj Kenneth of the Scots, Malcolm 
of Cmnberhind, Maccme, lord of Man and the lalee, and five 
prineef of Wale*, who all rowed his galley from Chester down 
the rirer Dee. These princes of Wales were the snoeesa^Hrs of 
Howel Dha, the wise legislator and powerful prince of all 
Wales.* King Edgar's salutarj laws are chiefly to be ascribed 
to St* Odo and St. Dunstan. This great king, by the direction 
of these holy men, set himself earnestly to repair the damages 
which the Church and State had received under the tyranny of 
his brother. 

St. Odo nerer intermitted the daily instruction of his clergy 
and flock, notwithstanding his great age, and strenuously 
laboured to advance daily in the divine love. He died in 961 
His relics, when his shrine was plundered at the change of re- 
ligion, seem to have been deposited under a small tomb which 
is seen at this day in the same place where the ehrine formerly 
stood. His name was famous in our English Martyrologies. 
For his virtue he was usually styled whilst living, Odo se gode, 
that is, in the Saxon language, Odo the Good. The Consti- 
tutions of St. Odo seem charges delivered by him to the 
clorgy.(l) The laws of the kings Athelstan, £dmund, and 
Edgar, are part laws of the State, part of the Church. They 
wore enacted in general assemblies or synods, and are for the 
most part to be ascribed to St. Odo. See Matthew of West- 
minster, Florence of Worcester, and the life of St. Odo, 
written, not by Osbem the famous monk of Canterbury, in 
l(»70» as Mabillon ooi\)ectured, Saec. Ben*. Y. p. 203, but by 
Kadmer, the disciple of Anselm, in 1121, as Henry Wharton 
demonstrates in his Preface, vol. 2, p. 10, Anglia Sacra. The 

(1) Sss Inett, Histoiy of the Church of Englund, t. 1. 

^ The Welch laws of Howel Dha, that is» Howel the Qood, are mt^ 
iUh«d by Dr. Wottoa. ia IbUo, 1735. 



July 4.] st. sisoes, anchorbt. 37 

Life of St. Odo, written by Osbern, and quoted by William of 
Malmesbury, seems no where to be extant The History of St 
Odo is compiled by Ericus Fantopidanus in his Gesta Danorum 
extra Daniam. Hafniae, 1740, t. 2, § 2, § 8, p. 157. 

ST. SISOES OR SISOY, ANCHORET IN EGYPT. 

After the death of St. Antony, St. Sisoes was one of the most 
shining lights of the Egyptian deserts. He was an EgyjTtian 
';y birth. Having quitted the world from his youth, he retired 
to the desert of SBcete, and lived some time under the direction 
of abbot Hor. The desire of finding a retreat yet more unfre- 
quented induced him to cross the Nile and hide himself in the 
mountain where St. Antony died some time before. The 
memory of that great man's virtues being still fresh, wonder- 
fully supported his fervour. He imagined he saw him, and 
heard the instructions he was wont to deliver to his disciples ; 
and he strained every nerve to imitate his most heroic exer- 
cises ; the austerity of his penance, the rigour of his silence, the 
almost unremitting ardour of his prayer, insomuch that the 
reputation of his sanctity became so illustrious as to merit the 
full confidence of all the neighbouring solitaries. Some even 
came a great distance to be guided in the interior ways of per- 
fection ; and, in spite of the pains he took he was forced to 
submit his love of silence and retreat to the greater duty of 
charity. He often passed two days without eating, and was so 
rapt in God that he forgot his food, so that it was necessary for 
his disciple Abraham to remind him that it was time to break 
his fast. He would sometimes be even surprised at the notice, 
and contend that he had already made his meal ; so small was 
the attention he paid to the wants of his body.(l) His prayer 
was so fervent that it often passed into ecstacy. At other times 
his heart was so inflamed with divine love, that, scarce able to 
support its violence, he only obtained relief from his sighs, which 
frequently escaped without his knowledge, and even against his 
will.(2) It was a maxim with him, that a solitary ought not to 
choose the manual labour which is most pleasing to him.(3) 

(1) Rosweide, Vit. Patr. 1. 5, lib. 4, n. 38. 

C2) Ibid. J, 6, lib. 2 n. 14. (3) CoteUer, Monum. Gr. p. 675. 



o8 BT, 8i80£8, ANCHORET. [JuL.Y 4 

His ordinary work was making baskets. He was tempted one 
day as he was selling them, to anger ; instantly he threw the 
baskets away and ran off. "By efforts like these to command 
his temper he acquired a meekness which nothing could dis- 
turb. His zeal against vice was without bitterness ; and when 
his monks fell into faults, far from affecting astonishment or 
the language of reproach, he helped them to rise again with a 
tenderness truly patemal.(l) When he once recommended 
patience and the exact observance of rules, he told the follow- 
ing anecdote: "Twelve monks, benighted A the road, ob- 
served that their guide was going astray. This, for ffear of 
breaking their rule of silence, they forbore to notice, thinking 
within themselves that at daybreak he would see his mistake 
and put them in the right road. Accordingly, the guide dis- 
covering his error, with much confusion, was making many 
apologies ; when the monks being now at liberty to speak, only 
said, with the greatest good humour : * Friend, we saw very 
well that you went out of your road ; but we were then bound 
to silence.* The man was struck with astonishment, and very 
much edified at this answer expressive of such patience and 
strictness of observance."(2) 

Some Arians had the impudence to come to his mount, and 
utter their heresy before his disciples. The saint, instead of 
an answer, desired one of the monks to read St. Athanasius's 
treatise against Arianism, which at once stopped their mouths 
and confounded them. He then dismissed them with his usual 
good temper. St Sisoes was singularly devoted to humility ; 
and in all his advices and instructions to others, held constantly 
before their eyes this most necessary virtue. A recluse sajring 
to him one day, " Father, I always place myself in the preseu*5e 
of God ;" he replied, " It would be much more your advantage 
to place yourself below every creature, in order to be securely 
humble.** Thus, while he never Idst sight of the divine pre- 
sence, it was ever accompanied with the consciousness of his - 
own nothingness and misery.(3) "Make yourself little,*' said 
he to a monk, "renounce all sensual satisfactions, disengage 
yourself from the empty cares of the world, and you will find 

(1) Cotelier, Monnm. Gr. p. 670. Rosweide, 1. 3, p. 103. 

i:^) Cotelier, ib. p. 072. (3) Rosweide, Yit. Patr. I 5, Ub. 15. d. 47. 



July 4.] st. sjsoes, avchoret. 89 

true peace of mind.(l) To another, who complained that he 
had not yet arrived at the perfection of St Antony, he said : 
Ah ! if I had but one only of that great man's feelings, I would 
be all one flame of divine .love.(2) Notwithstanding his ex- 
traordinary mortifications, they appeared so trifling in his mind, 
that he called himself a sensual man, and would have every one 
else to be of the same opinion.(3) If charity for strangers 
sometimes constrained him to anticipate dinner-hour, at ano- 
ther season, by way of indemniflcation, he protracted his fast, as 
if his body were indebted to so laudable a condescension,(4) 
He dreaded praise so much, that in prayer, as was his custom, 
with his hands lifted up to heaven, when sometimes he appre- 
hended observation, he would suddenly drop them down. 
He was always ready to blame himself, and saw nothing praise- 
worthy in others which did not serve him for an occasion to 
censure his own lukewarmness.(5) On a visit of three soli- 
taries wanting instruction, one of them said ; " Father, what 
shall I do to shun hell-fire ?** He made no reply. " And for 
my part," added another, "how shall I escape the gnashing of 
teeth, and the worm that never dies?" "What also will 
become of me," concluded the third, " for every time I think 
on utter darkness I am ready to die with fear." Then the 
saint breaking silence, answered: "I confess that these are sub- 
jects which never employ my thoughts, and as I know that 
Grod is merciful, I trust he will have compassion on me. You 
are happy," he added, " and I envy your virtue. You speak 
of the torments of hell, and your fears on this account must be 
powerful guards against the admission of sin. Alas ! then, it is 
I should exclaim. What shall become of me ? I, who am so 
insensible as never even to reflect on the place of torments 
destined to punish the wicked after deaths Undoubtedly this is 
the reason I am guilty of so much sin." The solitaries retired 
much edifled with this humble reply.(6) The saint said one 
time, "I am now thirty years praying daily that my Lord 
Jesus may preserve me from saying an idle word, and yet I am 



(1) Rosweide, Vit. Patr. 1. 5, lib. 1, n. 17. 

(2) Ibid. 1. 5, lib. 15, n. 44. (3) Ibid. n. 4/?. 

(4'i Ibid. 1. 5, lib. 8, o. 15. (5) Ibid. 1. 6. Ub. 9, n. 6. 

C6) Cotelier. ibid. p. 669. 



40 8T. 8I80S8, ANCHORXT. [ Jui^Y 4. 

always relapeing." This could only be the language which hu- 
militj dictates ; for he was singularly observant of the times of 
retirement and silence, and kept his cell constantly locked to 
avoid interruption, and always gave his answers to those who 
asked his advice in the fewest words.(l) The servant of God, 
worn out with sickness and old age, yielded at last to his 
disciple Abraham's advice, and went to reside awhile at 
Clysma, a town on the border, or at least in the neighbourhood 
of the Red Sea.(2) Here he received a visit from Ammon, or 
Amun, abbot of Raithe, who, observing his affliction for being 
absent from his retreat, endeavoured to comfort him by repre- 
senting that his present ill state of health wanted the remedies 
which could not be applied in the desert " What do you say," 
returned the saint, with a countenance full of grief, ** was not 
the ease of mind*i enjoyed there every thing for my comfort ?" 
He was not at ease till he returned to his retreat, where he 
finished his holy course. The solitaries of the desert asssisting 
at his agony, heard him, as Bufinus relates, cry out : " Behold, 
abbot Antony, the choir of prophets and the angels come to 
take my soul." At the same time his countenance shone, and 
being some time interiorly recollected with God, he cried out 
anew, " Behold I our Lord comes for me." At the instant he 
expired, his cell was perfumed with a heavenly odour.(3) He 
died about the year 429, after a retreat of at least sixty-two 
years in St. Antony's Mount His feast is inserted in the 
Greek Menologies on the 6th of July; and in some of the Latin 
Calendars on the 4th of the same month. See Rosweide, 
Cotelier, Tillemont, t 12, p. 453, and the Bollandists ad diem 
6 Julii, t. 2, p. 280. 

This saint must not be confounded with two other Sisoes, 
who lived in the same age. One, sumamed the Theban, lived 
at Calamon, in the territory of Arsinoe. Another had his cell 
at Petra. It is of Sisoes the Theban that the following passage 
is related, though some authors by mistake have ascribed it to St 
Sisoes of Scet^. A certain recluse having received some of- 
fence, went to Sisoes to tell him that he must have revenge. 
Tho holy old man conjured him to leave his revenge to God, 

(l) Rosweide, Yit. Fatr. 1. 5, lib. 4, n. 39, et 1. 6, lib. 8, n. 6. 

^) Cotelier, p. 671. (3j Rufin. ap. Rosw 1. 3, n. 162. 



JtJLT 4.] ST. BERTHA, WIDOW. 41 

to pardon his brother, and forget the injoiy he had received. 
But seeing that his advice had no weight with him, " At least* 
said he, *' let us both join in an address to God ;^ then standing 
up, he prayed thus aloud : " Lord, we no longer want your 
care of our interests or your protection, since this monk main- 
tains that we can and ought to be our own avengers." This 
extraordinary petition exceedingly moved the poor recluse, and 
throwing himself at the saint's feet, he begged his pardon, pro- 
testing that from that moment he would forget he had ever 
been injured.(l) This holy man loved retirement so much 
that he delayed not a moment even in the church after the mass 
to hasten to his cell. This was not to indulge self-love or an 
affected singularity, but to shun the danger of dissipation, and 
enjoy in silence and prayer the sweet conversation of God ; for 
at proper seasons, especially when charity required it, he was 
far from being backward in giving himself to the duties of so- 
ciety. Such was his self-denial that he seldom or ever ate 
bread. However, being invited one time by the neighbouring 
solitaries to a small repast, in condescension, and to show how 
little he was guided by self-will, observing that it would be 
agreeable, " I will eat," said he, " bread, or any thing you lay 
before me."(2) See Bulteau, Hist. Mon. d'Orient, 1. 1, c. 3, n. 
7, p. 56. Tillemont, t. 12, and Pinius, one of the continuators 
of Bollandus, on the 6th July. 

SAINT BERTHA, WIDOW, 

ABBESS OF BLANGT IN ARTOI8. 

She was daughter of count Rigobert and Ursana, related to one 
of the kings of Kent in England. In the twentieth year of her 
age she was married to Sigefroi, by whom she had five daugh- 
ters, two of whom, Gertrude and Deotila were saints. Aftei 
her husband's death, she put on the veil in the nunnery which 
she had built at Blangy in Artois, a little distance from Hesdin. 
Her daughters Gertrude and Deotila followed her example. 
She was persecuted by Roger or Rotgar, who endeavotired to 
asperse her with king Thierri III. to revenge his being refused 
Gertrude in marriage. But this prince, convinced of the inno- 

(1) Roaweide, Vit. Patr. 1. 6, lib. 16, n. 10. 
ia> Cotelier, t. 1, p. 678. 



4*^ ST. PSTEH, B. c. [July 5. 

cence of liertha, then abbess over her nunnery, gave her a kind 
reception, and took her under his protection. On her return to 
Blangy, Bertha finished her nunner}^ and caused three churches 
to be built, one in honour of St. Omer, another she called after 
St. Yaast, and the third in honour of St. Martin of Tours. And 
then, after establishing a regular observance in her community^ 
she left St. Deotila abbess in her stead, having shut herself in a 
cell, to be employed only in prayer. She died about the year 
725. A great part of her relics are kept at Blau gy.* See 
Mabiilon, sec. 3. Ben. part. 1, p. 451, Bulteau, Hist, de TOrdre 
ie St. Benoit, t. 2, 1. 4, c. 31, and Baillet on the 4th of July. 

ST. FINBAR, ABBOT, 

AND FOUNDER OF A FAMOUS MONASTERY IN THE ISLE OF 
CRIMLEN, BETWEEN KINSELECH AND DESIES. 

See Colgan in MSS. ad 4 Julii. He is not to be confounded 
with St. Finbar, the first bishop of Cork, who is honoured on 
the 25th of September. 

ST. BOLCAN, ABBOT, 

A DISCIPLE of St. Patrick in Ireland. Hia relics remain at 
Eilmore, i.e. Great Cell, where Ms monastery stood. h>ee 
Colgan, ib. 



JULY V. 
ST. PETER OF LUXEMBURGH, C. 

CARDINAL, BISHOP OP METZ. 

From hig life, written by John de la Marehe, hi« professor in laws, the 
year after his death, with the notes of Pinius the Bollandist, Julij, t. 1, 
p. 486. See also the bull of his beatification in Mirseus, and a history 
of a great number of miracles wrought by his intercession and relics in 
Pinius, ib. His life is compiled by a Celestine monk from original 
authentic MSS. kept in the houses of the Celestines at Avignon, Paris, 
Mantes, &c. printed at Paris in 1661. 

A. D. 1387. 

TiiE most illustrions bouses of the Dukes and Counts of Lux- 
emburg and St. Pol, not onlj have held for several centuries 

* The monastery of Blangy was founded in 686 Ilaring been de- 



JULT 5.J ST. PETERy B. C. 43 

the first rank among the nobility of the Low Countries, but vie 
with most royal families in Europe ; the former haying given 
five emperors to the Germans, several kings to Hungary and 
Bohemia, a queen to France, and innumerable renowned heroes, 
whose great a(^ns are famous in the histories of Europe and 
the East. But none of their exploits have reflected so great a 
lustre on these families as the humility of our St. Peter. He 
was son to Guy of Luxemburgh, Count of Ligny, and to Maud, 
countess of St Pol ; and was born at Ligny, a small town in 
Lorrain, in the Diocess of Toul, in 1369- He was nearly re- 
lated to the Emperor "Wenceslas, Sigismund, king of Hungary, 
and Charles YL king of France. He lost his pious father at 
three years <^ age, and his most virtuous mother a year after ; 
but his devout aunt, the Countess of Orgieres and Countess 
Dowager of St. Pol,* took care of his education, and made a 
prudent choice of most virtuous persons whom she placed abou^ 
him. By the excellent example and precepts of his masters, 
and the strong impressions of an early grace, he seemed formed 
by nature to perfect vii-tue. In his tender age the least sallies 
of the passions seemed rather prevented than subdued ; and his 
ardour in the pursuit of virtue so far surpassed the ordinaiy 
capacity of children of his tender age, that it was a matter of 
astonishment to all who knew him. His assiduity and fervour in 
prayer, his secret se^f-denials, great abstemiousness, and, above 
all, his love of humility in an age when others are usually 
governed only by the senses, seemed a miracle of divine gracei 
He made a private vow of perpetual chastity before he was 
seven years of age, and he contrived by a hundred Httle artifices 
that no poor person should ever be dismissed wherever he was 
without an alms. At ten years of age he was sent to Paris, 
where he studied Latin, philosophy, and the canon law. In the 
mean time his eldest brother Valeran, Count of St. Pol, was 
taken prisoner by the English in a battle in which they defeated 
the French and Flemings in Flanders. Upon the news that 
his brother was made prisoner and sent to Calais, Peter, in 

Btroyed during the incnrsions of tne Normans, it was rebuilt in the 

eleventh century, and given to the religious of the Order of St. Benedict. 

It is still in being. 

• * She was widow of Guy of Chatillon, count of St. FoU brother fce> 

Maud. 



44 ST. PETER, B. C. [JuLY 5. 

1381, intemipted his 8tudie^, went over to London, and de- 
livered himself up a hostage for his brother till his ransom 
should be paid. The English were charmed with his extraor- 
dinary virtue, and after he had stayed a year in London, gene- 
rously gave him his liberty, saying his word was a sufficient 
pledge and security for the ransom stipulated. King Richard 
IL invited him to his court ; but Peter excused himself, and 
hastened back to Paris to his studies. His watchings and fasts 
were very austere, and he made no visits but such as were in- 
dispensable, or to persons of extraordinary virtue, from whose 
conversation and example he might draw great spiritual advan- 
tage for the benefit of his own soul. With this view he often 
resorted to Philip of Maisiers, a person eminently endowed with 
the double spirit of penance and prayer, who having been for- 
merly chancellor of the kingdoms of Jerusalem and Cyprus, led 
for twenty-five years a retired life in the convent of the Celes- 
tines in Paris, without taking any vows, or professing that Or- 
der. From this detout servant of Grod our saint received im- 
portant instructions and advice, which gave him great light in • 
the exerci^s of prayer, and in the paths of interior spiritual 
perfection. 

In 1383 his brother, the Count of St. Pol, obtained for him 
a canonry in our Lady's at Paris ; which ecclesiastical prefer- 
ment was to him a new motive to increase his fervour in the di- 
vine service. His devotion and assiduity in choir, his charity 
towards all, his innocence, his perfect spirit of mortification, and 
his meekness, edified exceedingly the whole city ; and the mo- 
desty with which he endeavoured to conceal his virtues was like 
a fine transparent veil through which they shone with redoubled 
lustre. His humility was most conspicuous, of which the follow- 
ing instance, among others, is recorded : When a young clerk 
refused to carry the cross at a solemn procession, the new canon 
took it up and carried it with so much devotion, that the whole city 
was istruck with admiration to see him. Peter strove only to ad- 
vance in humility and Christian perfection : this was the sole point 
which he had in view in all his actions and undertakings ; and 
he was very far from aspiring to the least ecclesiastical dignity. 
But the reputation of his extraordinary sanctity reaching Avig- 
non. Clement VII. who, in the great schism, was acknow- 



July o.] st. peter, b. c. 45 

ledged by France for true pope, nominated him archdeacon 
of Dreux, in the diocess of Chartres, and soon after, in 1384, 
bishop of Metz, his great sanctity and prudence seeming to many 
a sufficient reason for dispensing with his want of age. But 
Peter's reluctance and remonstrances could only be ovei-come 
by a scruple which was much exaggerated to him, that by too 
obstinate a disobedience he would offend God. He made his 
public entry at Metz barefoot, and riding on an ass, to imitate 
the humility of our divine Redeemer. He would suffer no 
other magnificence on that occasion than the distribution of 
great alms and largesses among. the poor ; nor would he admit 
any attendants but what might inspire modesty and piety. 

He had no sooner taken possession of his church than with 
the suffragan, Bertrand, a Dominican, who was given him for 
his assistant, and consecrated bishop of Thessaly, he performed 
the visitation of his diocess, in which he every where corrected 
abuses, and gave astonishing proofs of his zeal, activity, and 
prudence. He divided his revenues into three parts, allotting 
(>ne to his church, a second to the poor, and reserving a third 
for himself and family, though the greater share of this he 
added to the portion of the poor. On fest-days commanded by 
the church he took no other sustenance than bread and water ; 
and he fasted in the same austere manner all Advent, and all 
Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays throughout the year. When 
several towns had revolted from him and created for themselves 
new magistrates, his brother, the Count of St. Pol, reduced 
them to their duty by force of arms. The holy bishop was ex- 
ceedingly mortified at this accident, and out of his own patri- 
mony made amends to every one even among the rebels for all 
losses they had sustained, which unparalleled charity gained him 
all their hearts. Though he was judged, by those who were 
best acquainted with his interior, during his whole life never to 
have stained his baptismal innocence by any mortal sin, he had 
so high an idea of the purity in which a soul ought always to 
appear in the divine presence, especially when she approaches 
the holy mysteries, that he went every day to confession with 
extraordinary compunction, and bewailed the least imperfec- 
tions with many tears. The very shadow of the least sloth or 

failing in any action affrighted him. In the year 13l84« Clement 
VOL, va © 



46 ST. PETER, B. C. [JuLT 5. 

VII. soon after he bad nominated him bishop, created him car- 
dinal, under the title of St. George, and in 1 386 called him to 
Avignon, and obliged him to reside there near his person* Peter 
continu*)d all his former austerities in the midst of a court, till 
Clement commanded him to mitigate them for the sake of his 
hei^th, which seemed to be in a declining condition. His an- 
swer was : " Holy Father, I shall always be an unprofitable 
servant, but I can at least obey." He desired to compensate 
for what he lost in the practices of penance by redoubling his 
alms-deeds. By his excessive charities his purse was always 
empty ; his table was most frugal, his family very small, his 
furniture mean, and his clothes poor, and these he never 
changed till they were worn out It seemed that he could not 
increase his alms, yet he found means to do it by distributing 
his little furniture and his equipage among the indigent, and 
selling for them the episcopal ring which he wore on his finger. 
Everything about him breathed an extraordinary spirit of po- 
verty, and published his affection for the poor. At his death 
hts whole treasure amounted only to twenty pence. In all his 
actions he seemed attentive only to God ; and he fell into rap- 
tures sometimes in the street, or whilst he waited on the pope 
at court. An ancient picture of the saint is kept in the colle- 
giate church of our Lady at Autun, in which he is painted in 
an ecstacy, and in which are written these words which he was 
accustomed frequently to repeat: " Contempt of the world, 
contempt of thyself: rejoice in thy own contempt, but despise 
no other person.** 

Ten months after his promotion to the dignity of cardinal, the 
saint was seized with a sharp fever, which so much undermined 
his constitution that his imperfect recovery was succeeded by a 
dangerous slow fever. For his health he was advised to retire 
to Villeneuve, an agreeable town situate opposite to Avignon, 
on the other side of the Rhone. He was glad by this opportu- 
nity to see himself removed from the noise and hurry of the 
court. During his last illness he went to confession twice 
every day, never passed a day without receiving the holy com- 
munion ; and the constant union of his soul with God, and 
the tenderness of his devotion seemed continually to increase as 
be drew near his end. His brother Andrew coming to see him. 



JlTI.T 6.] ST. PETER, B. C. 47 

the saint spoke to him with such energy on the vanity of the 
world, and on the advantages of piety, that his words left a 
deep impression on his heart during: his whole life. This bro- 
ther afterwards taking holy orders was made bishop of Cam- 
bray, and became one of the most holy prelates of that age. 
Our saint recommended to him in particular his sister Jane of 
Luxemburg, whom he had induced to make a vow of perpetual 
chastity, and whose whole life was a perfect pattern of Christian 
perfection. St. Peter sent her by this brother a small treatise 
containing certain rules of perfection, which he had drawn up 
for her. Finding his strength quite exhausted, he desired and 
received the last sacraments ; after which he called all his ser- 
vants, and as they stood weeping round his bed, he begged 
their pardon for not having edified them by his example as he 
ought to have done. He then conjured them all to promise to 
do for his sake one thing which he was going to ask of them. 
To this they most readily engaged themselves. But they were 
much surprised when he ordered them to take a discipline which 
lay under his pillow, and every one to give him many stripes 
on his back, in punishment for the faults he had committed in 
xegardHo them, who were, as he said, his brethren in Christ 
and his masters. Notwithstanding their extreme unwilling- 
ness, they were obliged to comply with his request in order to 
satisfy him. After this act of penance and humiliation, he 
conversed with God in silent prayer till he gave up his inno- 
cent soul into his hands, on the 2nd of July, 1387, being 
eighteen years old, wanting eighteen days. Though he had the 
administration of a diocess, he had not received priestly orders, 
but seems to have been deacon, and his dalmatic is shown at 
Avignon. He was buried without pomp, according to his or- 
ders, in the church-yard of St. Michael. 

On account of many miracles that were wrought both before 
and after his interment, the citizens of Avignon built a rich 
chapel over his grave. The convent and church of the Celes- 
tines have been since built over that very spot, and in this 
ehurch is the saint's body, at present enshrined under a stately 
mausoleum. The history of the miracles which have been 
wrought at his tomb fills whole volumes. A famous one in 
1432, moved the city of Avignon to choose him for its patron. 



49 ST. nODWIiSA, V. fJULY 5. 

It is related as follows: A child about twelve years old fell 
from a high tower in the palace of AvigDon upon a sharp rock, 
by which fall his skull was split, his brains dashed out, and his 
body terribly bruised. The father of the child, almost distracted ' 
at this accident, ran to the place, and falling on his knees, with 
many tears implored the intercession of St. Peter. Then gather- 
ing up the scattered bloody pieces of the child's skull, he carried 
them with the body in a sack, and laid them on the saint's 
tomb. The people and the Celestine monks joined their earnest 
prayers : and after some time the child returned to life, and was 
.placed upon the altar that all might see him thus wonderfully 
raised from the dead. This miracle happened on the 6 th of 
July, on which day the festival of the saint has ever since been 
celebrated at Avignon. After juridical informations on his life 
And miracles, the bull of his beatification was published by the 
true pope Clement VII., of the family of Medicis, in 1527. 

St. Peter was a saint from the cradle, because he always 
strove to live only for God, and his divine honour. If one 
spark of that ardent love of God which inflamed the saints in 
their actions animated our breasts, it would give wings to our 
souls in all we do. We should devote ourselves every moment 
to God with our whole strength ; and by our fidelity, and by 
the purity and fervour of our intention, we should with the 
saints make all our actions perfect sacrifices of our hearts to 
him. " Qrod considers not how much, but with how ardent an 
affection the thing is given," says St Cyprian.(l) And, as St. 
Ambrose writes,(2) ^ Thy affection stamps the name and value 
on thy action. It is just rated at so much as b the ardour from 
which it proceeds. See how just is this judge — He asks thy 
own soul what value he is to set on thy work." 

ST. MODWENA, A NOBLE IRISH VIRGIN. 

Having led a religious life several years in her own country, 
she came into England in the reign of King Ethelwolf, about 
the year 840. That pious and great king being acquainted with 
iier sanctity, committed to her care the education of his daughter 
Editha, and founded for her the monasteiy of PoUesworth, neai 

(1) St Cypr. I die Oper. et £leem. (2) L. K de Offic. c. 90. 



July 6.] st. palladids, b. a 49 

the forest of Arden, in Warwickshire, which flourished till the 
dissolution, bearing usually the name of St. Editha, its patro- 
ness and second ablSess. St. Modwena had before established 
two famous nunneries in Scotland, one at Stirling, the other in 
Edinburgh. She made some other pious foundations in Eng- 
land ; but to apply herself more perfectly to the sanctification of 
her own soul, she led during seven years an anchoretical life 
in an isle in the Trent, which was called Andresey from tlie 
apostle St. Andrew, in whose honour she procured her oratory 
to be dedicated. When the great abbey of Burton-upon-Trent " 
was founded in the year 1004, it was dedicated under the pa- 
tronage of the Blessed Virgin and St Modwena, and was en- 
riched with the relics of this saint, which were translated thither 
from Andresey; when,ce Leland calls the monastery of Burton 
Modwenestow. See Pinius the Bollandist, t. 2. Julij, p 241. 
Tanner's Notitia Hon., &c. 

ST. ED ANA, OR EDAENE, IN IRELAND, V. 

She is titular saint of the parish of New Tuamia, in the dio- 
cess of Elphin, and another in that of Tuam. A famous holj^ 
well bears her name, much resorted to by the sick. See Col- 
gan, ad 5 Jul. 



JULY VI. 
SAINT PALLADIUS, B. C. 

APOSTLE OF THE SCOTS.* 

From St. Prosper and other historians, quoted by Usher, Antiq. Brit. 
Eccles. c. 16, p. 416, 424; Keith, Cat. £piac. Scot. p. 233; and the 
Bollandists, 6 Jul. t. 2, Jul. p. 286. 

ABOUT THE YEAU 450. 

The name of Palladius shows this saint to have been a Roman, 
and most authors agree that he was deacon of the church of 
Rome. At least St. Prosper in his chronicle informs us, 

• The Abbe Mac Greoghegan, in his History of Ireland, published in 
Piiris in 1758, asserts that the Scots were originally Scythians, or pro- 
perly Celto-Scythians, of Spanish original. Foreign writers of repute 
ear witness to this extraction ; the .native historians of Ireland have at 



50 »T. FALIiADIUS, B. C* [JoLT 6- 

that when Agricola, a noted Pelagian, had corrupted the 
eharchea of Britain with the insinuation of that pestilential 
heresy, Pope Celestine, at the instance of Palladius the deacon, 
in 429, sent thither St. Germanus, bishop of Auxerre, in quar 
litj of his legate, who having ejected the heretics, brought back 
the Britons to the Catholic faith. The concern of Palladius for 
these islands stopped not here ; for it seems not to be doubted, 

all times been unanimous in recording it, and hare adduced testimonies 
in support of it, which cannot be easily overthrown, as some mo- 
dems, who made the attempt, have experienced. The ancient Fileas of 
Ireland hare indeed (like the old poets of all other European nations) 
shrouded real facts in a reil of pompous fables. Thus they pretended 
the leaders of this Spanish colony were the descendants c^ a cele- 
brated Breogan, and that a grandson of this Breogan was married to 
an Egyptian heroine named Scota, from whom the Irish took the name 
of Kinea-Scuit or Scots, as they took the appeUation of Clan-Breogan 
or Brigantes, from the former. But such inrentions, acceptable to the 
credulity and flattering to the pride of nations, cannot discredit any fact 
otherwise well attested. The British Brigantes were probably descen- 
dants of the Irish Brigantes, as the Scots of Britain were certainly de- 
scended from those of Ireland. TiMntus. in the first age of the Christian 
era, has thought from the difference of complexion and frame of body 
-obserrable among the British tribes of his time, that some were of Spa- 
nish original ; and an earlier writer, Seneca, in his satire on the Em- 
peror Claudius, makes mention of the Scuta-Brigantes, which Scaliger, 
by a needless correction, makes Scoto-Brigantes, as the Irish wrote Scuit 
imd Scoit indifferently. This testimony of Seneca is a proof that the 
name Scots or Scuits, was known to some Roman writers so eariy as the 
first century ; and the Irish appellations of Kinea-Scuit and Clan-Breo- 
gan plainly point out the proper country of those Scuta-Brigantes in the 
time of the Emperor Nero. 

Mac Geoghegan looks upon the Irish to be a mother tongue ; and it 
may justly be so denominated, notwithstanding the adoption of some 
foreign terms, and some yariations of construction introduced by time in 
all languages, before they arrive ait their classical standard. Some wri- 
tings of the fifth century show that this language was at its full perfec- 
tion before the introduction of the gospel by Roman missionaries in the 
fourth and fifth centuries. The notion that this language is a dialect of 
the modem Biscayan is undoubtedly groundless. The latter tongue 
owes its original to some nation of those barbarians, who settled in Gui- 
puscoa and other parts of the Pyrenean regions, on tlie decline of the 
.Roman empire, nor are the few words common in the Basque and Irish 
tongues any proof that the one is descended from the other. This obser- 
vation will hold good relatively to the Welch and Irish languages. They 
differ entirely in Syntax, and show that the two nations speaking those 
tongues have different Celtic originals. 

Bollandus says that St. Patrick taught the first alphabet to the Irish : 
he means the Roman alphabet, and should not forget that it was taught 
very near an age before, by earlier missionaries in the parts of Ireland 
^hich they converted to the faith. In the antecedent times the Fileat 
or ancient Irish writers, inscribed their ideas on tablets of wood, by the 
means of seventeen cyphers, of which their ancestors learned the use be- 



July 6.] st. palladius, b. c 5\ 

but it was the same person of whom St. Prosper again speaks, 
when he afterwards says, that in 431 Pope Celestine sent Pal- 
ladius, the first bishop to the Scots then believing in Christ* 
From the lives of SS. Albeus, Declan, Ibar, and Eiaran Saigir, 
Usher shows(l) that these four saints preached separately in 
different parts of Ireland, which was their native country, be- 
fore the mission of St Patrick. St. Iber had been converted 

(1) Antiq. Brit. Eccl. c. 16, pp. 408, 412. 

fore their arrival in Ireland ; nor is this fact obscured, but is rather en- 
lightened by a fable of the FUeas, setting forth that some of those ances- 
tors were instructed in letters by a celebrated Fhenius, famous for literary 
knowledge in the East. Through this poetical reil we plainly discern 
the Fhenicians, who first instructed the Europeans (the Greeks, Lybians, 
Italians, and Spaniards particularly) in the use' of letters and other arts. 
Spain, according to Strabo, had the use of letters at a very eariy 
period ; and that a colony from that country should import into, and cul- 
tivate also, those elements of knowledge in Ireland, is not improbable: 
the perfection of the Irish language before the introduction of Christianity, 
is an incontrovertible proof of the fact. 

The Scots are represented as a rude and barbarous people in tlie fourth 
and fifth ages, even by some eminent ecclesiastical writers. But these 
as well as other foreign liistoriaiis have not, if at all, been resident long 
enough in Ireland to pronounce the natives barbarous, if those writers 
took that epithet in the worst sense it can bear. St. Jerora avers that 
when an adokscentulus, he saw a Scot in Gaul feeding upon human 
flesh, but the child in this case might impose upon the man ; or if other- 
wise, a nation is not to be charactei:ised from the barbarity of an indivi. 
dual, or even of a single tribe in an extensive country. That some bar- 
barous customs prevailed in Ireland during the ages mentioned, cannot 
be denied ; and that some prevail at this day in most of the modern 
states of Europe, called enlightened, is a matter of fatal experience. In 
the documents still preserved in the native language of the ancient Irish, 
we learn that after the reform made of the Order of Fileas in the first 
century, houses and ample landed endowments were set apart for those 
philosophers, who, in the midst of the most furious civil wars, were by 
?ommon consent to be left undisturbed ; that they were to be exempt 
from every employment but that of improving themselves in abstract 
knowledge, and cultivating the principid youths of the nation in their 
several colleges ; that in the course of their researches they discovered 
and exposed the corrupt doctrines of the Druids ; and that an enlightened 
monarch called Cormac 0*Quin took the lead among the Fileas in the 
attack upon that order of priests, and declared publicly for the unity of 
the Godhead agiunst Polytheism, and for the adoration of one supreme, 
nnnipotent, and merciful Creator of heaven and earth. The example of 
that monarch, and the disquisitions of the Fileas relating to religion and 
morality, paved the way for the reception of the gospel ; and as the doc 
trines of our Saviour made the quickest progress among civilized nations, 
the conversion of Ireland in a shorter compass of time than we read of 
in the conversion of any other European country, brings a proof that the 
natives were not the rude barbarians some ancient authors have repre- 
fented them to be. 



52 fiT. TAJJLADIVS, B. C. [»TCLT ()• 

Co tlie fnith in Britain ; the other three had been instructed at 
Rome, and were directed thence back into their own country, 
and according to tlie histories of their lives, were all honoured 
with the episcopal character. St. Kiaran Saigir (who is com- 
memorated on the 5th of March) preceded St. Patrick in 
preaching the gospel to the Ossorians, and was seventy-five 
years of age on St. Patrick's arrival in Ii-eland. Hence it is 
easy to understand what is said of St. Palladius, that he was 
sent bishop to the Scots believing in Christ : though the num- 
ber of Christians among them must have been then very small. 
St. Prosper, in his book against the Author of the Confe- 
r«?»c<9*,(l) having commended Pope Celestine for his care in 
delivering Biitain from the Pelagian heresy, adds, that " he 
alwso ordained a bishop for the Scots, and thus whilst he endea- 
voured to preserve the Koman island Catholic^ he likewise 
made a barbarous island Christian." Usher observes that this 
can be understood only of Ireland ; for though part of North 
Britain was never subject to the Romans, and the greater pari 
of it was then inhabited by the Picts, yet it never could be 
called a distinct island. It is also clear from TertuUian, Euse^ 
bius, St. Chrysostom, and others, that the light of the gospel 
}iad penetrated among the Picts beyond the Roman territories 
in Briuiin, near the times of the apostles. These people, there- 
foi'e, who had lately begun to receive some tincture of the faith 
when our saint undertook his mission, were, doubtless, tbo 
Scots, who were settled in Ireland. 

The Irish writers of the lives of St Patrick say, that S.t. 
Palladius had preached in Ireland a little before St. Patrick, 
but that he was soon banished by the king of Leinster, and re- 
turned to North Britain, where they tell us he had first opened 
his mission. It seems not to be doubted but he was sent to the 
whole nation of the Scots, several colonies of whom had passed 
from Ireland to North Britain, and possessed themselves of 
part of the country, since called Scotland.* After St. Palla- 
dius had left Ireland, he arrived among the Scots in North 

(1) Prosp. Contra CoUat. c. 44. 

• See the note on the life of St. Patrick in this work, vol. 3, p. 171); 
also Ware's Antiq. by Harris, with his reu^arks on Dempster, c. 1, p. 4. 



July 6.] st. palladius, b. c. 53 

Britain, according to St Prosper, in the consulate of Bassns 
and Antiochus, in the year of Christ 431.(1) He preached 
there with great zeal, and formed a considerable church. The 
Scottish historians tell us, that the faith was planted in 
North Britain about the year 200, in the time of King Donald, 
when Victor was pope of Rome; but they all acknowledge 
that Palladius was the first bishop in that country, and style 
him their first apostle.* The saint died at Fordun, the capital 
town of the little county of Mernis, ^fteen miles from Aberdeen 
to the south, about the year 450. His relics were preserved 
with religious respect in the monastery of Fordun, as Hector 
Boetius(2) and Camden testify. In the year 1409, William 
Scenes, archbishop of St. Andrew's and primate of Scotland, 
enclosed them in a new shrine enriched with gold and precious 
stones. His festival is marked on the 6th of July in the Bre^ 
viary of Aberdeen and the Scottish Calendars ; but in some of 
the English on the 15th of December. Scottish writers, and 
calendars of the middle as:es, mention St. Servanus, and St. 
Teman as disciples of St. Palladius, and by him made bishops, 

(1) Usher, p. 418. (2) Hect. Boet. 1. 7, fol. 128. 

* Certain ancient principal Scottish saints are commemorated in an an- 
cient Scottish calendar published by Mr. Bobert Keith, as follow : 

Jan. 8. St. Nethalan, B. C. An. 452. 21. St. Vimin, B. An. 715. 
29. St. Macwoloc, B. An. 720. 30. St. Macglastian, B. An. 814. 

Feb. 7. St. Ronan, B. C. An. 603. 

March 1. St. Minan, archdeacon, C. An. 879. Also St. Maman, B. 
An. 655. 4. St. Adrian, B. of St. Andrew's, M. He was slain bj the 
Danes in 874, and buried in the Isle of Man. 6. St. Fredoline, C. An, 
500. 11. St. Constantine, king of Scotland, a monk and M. An. 55Q, 
17. St. Kyrinus or Kyrstinus, sumamed Bonitace, B. t>f Roes, An. 660. 

April I. St. Gilbert, B. of Caithness, An. 1140. 12. St. Teman, 
archbishop of the Picts, ordained by St. Faliadins, about the year 450. 
16. St. Manus or Mans, M. in Orkney, An. 1104. 19. Translation of 
St. Margaret's body to Dunfermline. 

July 6. St. Palladius, apostle of Scotland. 

August 10. St. Blanc, B. C. 27. St. Malrube, hermit, martyred by 
the Danes, in Scotland, in 1040. 

September 16. St. Minian, B. C. in 450, or according to some, a wlicle 
century later. 22. St. Lolan, B. of Whithem or Galloway. 

October 25. St. Mamoc, B. C. died at Kilmarnock in the fourth or 
fifth century. 

November 2. St. Maure, from wliom Kilmrures is named, An. 899. 
12. St. Macar, B. of Murray, M. 887. 

St. Gemianus, B. C. said to have been appointed bishop of the isles by 
6t. Patrick. Under his invocation the cathedral of the Isle of Man is 



54 ST. JULIAN* [July 6. 

the fonner of Orkney, the latter of the Picts. But from Usher's 
chronologj it appears that they both lived later. 

It is easy to conceive how painful and lahorious the mission of 
this saint must have been ; but where there is ardent love, labour 
seems a pleasure, and either is not felt or is a delight. It is a 
mark of sloth and impatience for a man to count his labours, or 
so muck as to think of pains or sufferings in so glorious an un- 
dertaking. St. Palladius surmounted every obstacle which a 
fierce nation had opposed to the establishment of the kingdom 
of Jesus Christ. Ought not our hearts to be impressed with the 
most Hvely sentiments of love and gratitude to our merciful 
God, for having raised up such great and zealous men, by 
whose mini^ry the light of true faith has been conveyed to us. 

ST. JULIAN, ANCHORET. 

This saint was carried away captive from some western country 
when he was very young, and sold for a slave in Syria. For 
some years he much aggravated the weight of his chains by his 
impatience under them ; till having the happiness to receive 
the light of faith he found them exceedingly lightened by 
the comfort which religion afforded him. A right use of 

dedicated. St. Macull or Mauchold, in Latin Macallius, bishop in the 
same place from 494 to 518. In his honour many churches are dedicated 
in Scotland, and one in the Isle of Man. He is honoured on the 25th of 
April. St. Brendan, from whom a church in the Isle of Man is called 
Kirk-Bradan, was bishop of the isles in the ninth centurj. 

N. B. The Isle of Man has had its own bishop from the time it came . 
into the hands of the English in the days of Edward I. of England, and 
David II. of Scotland. It was anciently subject to the bishop of the 
isles, who always resided at Hy-columbkiU till the extinction of episco- 
pacy in Scotland, in 1688. The bishops both of the isles and of Man 
took the title of Episcopus Sodorensis; which Mr. Keith (p. 175,) de- 
rives, (not from any town.) but from the Greek word Soter or Saviour, 
because the cathedral of Hy-columbkiU is dedicated to our Saviour. 
See Mr. Bobert Keith, in his new Catalogue of bishops in Scotland, 
j>rinted at Edinburgh, in 4to. An. 1755. 

Le Neve supposes with Spotiswood that the Isle of Man had its bishops 
alter Amphibalus, who lived in the fourth age ; that they were cidled 
bishops of Soder from a village of that name in the island, and that the 
title was transferred to the island of Hy-columbkill in the eighth age, 
when the two sees were united into one. But the succession of bishops 
in the Isle of Man is not sufficiently clears 

Matthew Paris says that Wycomb was first bishop of Man, in the 
twelfth age, and that he was consecrated by the Archbishop of York* 
JBee Le Neve, Fasti Anglic. 



July 6.2 st. juliaic* 56 

his afflictions from that moment contributed much to the sanc- 
tification of his souL Not long after he recovered his libertj 
by the death of his master, and immediately in the fervour of 
his devotion dedicated himself to the service of God in an aus- 
tere monastery in Mesopotamia. He frequently resorted to the 
great St. Ephrem for advice and instmctiohs in the exercises of 
virtue ; and that holy man went often to see him, that he might 
edify himself by his saintly conversation. This learned doctor 
of the Syriac church tells us, that he could not forbear always 
admiring the sublime sentiments and spiritual lights with which 
God favoured a man who appeared in the eyes of the world ig- 
norant and a barbarian. Julian was of a robust body, inured 
to labour, but he weakened and emaciated it by great austeri- 
ties. He worked with his hands, making sails for ships ; and 
wept almost continually at the consideration of his past sins, 
and of the divine judgments. St. Ephrem tells us that he often 
admired to find that in the copies of the Holy Bible after Julian 
had used them some days, several words were effaced, and 
others rendered scarcely legible, though the manuscripts were 
entire and fair before ; and that the holy man candidly con- 
fessed to him when he one day asked him the reason, that the 
tears which he shed in reading often, blotted out letters and 
words. Our saint always looked upon himself as a criminal, 
trembling, and expecting every moment the coming of his judge 
to call him to an account. It is easy to imagine how remote 
Such a disposition of mind was from being capable of entertain- 
ing the very thought of amusements. His extreme humility 
appeared in his words, dress, and all his actions. He had much 
to suffer from certain tepid and slothful monks ; but regarded 
himself as happy to meet with so favourable opportunities of 
redeeming his sins, and of exercising acts of penance, patience, 
meekness, and charity. Prayer was almost the uninterrupted 
employment of his heart. He made in his little cell a kind 
of a sepulchre, where he lived retired for greater solitude 
whenever his presence was not required at duties of the com- 
munity. He assisted at the divine office without ever moving 
his body, keeping his whole attention fixed on God, as if he 
had been standing before the tribunal of his sovereign judge. 
St. Ephrem assures us that God honoured him with the gift of 



66 ^ ST. SEXBURGH, A. JuLY 6b 

miracles. Sozomen writes(l) that his life was so austere, that 
he seemed almost to live without a bodj. Thus he spent twenty- 
five years in his monastery, purifying his soul by patience, 
obedience, and the labours of penance. He passed to a glorious 
immortality about the year 370. See his life written by his 
friund the gi-eat St. Ephrem, Op. t. 3, p. 254, ed. Vatic 

ST. SEXBURGH, ABBESS- 

She was daughter of Anna the religious king of the East- 
Angles, and his devout queen Hereswide, sister te St. Hilda. 
A pious education laid in her the foundation of that eminent 
sanctity for which she was most conspicuous during the whole 
course of her life. She was given in marriage to Ercombert, 
king of Kent, a prince of excellent dispositions, which she con- 
tributed exceedingly to improve by her counsels and example. 
She had a great share in all his zealous undertakings for promot- 
ing virtue and the happiness of his people, especially in extir- 
pating the last remains of idolatry in his dominions, and in en- 
forcing the observance of Lent, and other precepts of the church 
by wholesome laws. Her virtue commanded the reverence, and 
her humility and devotion raised the admiration of all her sub- 
jects ; and her 'goodness and unbounded charity gained her the 
love of all, especially the poor. She had a longing desire to 
consecrate herself wholly to God in religious retirement ; and 
that others at least might attend the divine service for her night 
and day without impediment, she began in her husband's life- 
time to found a monastery of holy virgins in the isle of Shepey, 
on the coast of Kent, which she finished after his death in 664, 
whilst her son Egbert sat on the throne. Here she assembled 
seventy-four nuns, but hearing of the great sanctity of St. 
Etheldreda at Ely, and being desirous to live in greater obscu- 
rity, and to be more at liberty to employ all her thoughts on 
heaven, she left the kingdom of Kent, and retired to Ely before 
the year 679, in which she was chosen to succeed her sister St. 
Etheldreda, or Audry, in the government of that house. Six-* 
teen years after she caused the body of that saint to be takeit 
up ; and passed herself to bliss in a good old age, on the 6 th of 

(1) Sozum. I. 3, c. U. 



July 6.] st. moniwna, v. 57 

July, towards the end of the seventh century. Her monastery 
in Shepey, called Le Mynstre in Shepey, was destroyed by the 
Danes, but rebuilt in 1130, and consecrated by William, arch- 
bishop of Canterbuiy, in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary 
and St. Sexburgh ; and it subsisted in the hands of Benedictia 
nuns till the dissolution of abbeys. St. Ermenilda, daughter 
of king Ercumbert and St. Sexburgh, was married to Wulpher, 
king of Mercia, but after his death retired to Ely, near her 
mother and her two aunts St. Audry and St. Withburg, three 
daughters of king Anna. St. Wereburgh, daughter of St. Er- 
menilda and king Wulpher, was a nun at Hearburgh, (which 
seems to have been near Stanford or Croyland.) Her relics 
vere venerated at Hearburgh, till in the ninth century they 
were removed to Leicester. See the life of St. «(Bexburgh in 
Capgrave ; also Bede and Narratio de Sanctis qui in Anglia 
quiescunt, in Hickes, Diss. Epistol. p. 117; Thesaur. t. 1, and 
Monast. Anglic, t, 1, p. 88 et 152; Weever*s Funeral Monu- 
ments, p. 283, and Kalendarium in quo annotantur dies obitus 
Sororum Monasterii de Shepey, MS. Bibliot. Cotton. 

ST. GOAR, PRIEST, C. 

Aquitain gave this saint his birth and education ; but out of 
a desire of serving God entirely unknown to the world, in 519 
he travelled into Germany, and settling in the territory of 
Triers, he shut himself in his cell, and arrived at such an emi- 
nent degree of sanctity as to be esteemed the oracle and miracle 
of the whole country. He resolutely refused the archbishopric 
of Triers, and died in 575. Round his cell arose the town of 
St Guver, on the left bank of the Rhine between Wesel and 
Boppard. See Brower and Finius the Bollandist, t. 2, Julij, 
p. 328. 

ST. MONINNA, VIRGIN 

Of Sliabh-Cuillin, t. e. Mount Cullen, where she led a most 
holy life in austere penance and heavenly contemplation. She 
died in 518, and is much honoured in that part of Ireland. See 
Colgan ad 6 JuL 



68 8T. PANTJENITS. [JCLT 7. 

JULY VII. 

ST. PANT^NUS, 

FATHER OF THE CHURCH. 

See St. Jerom, CataL Clem. Alex, and Eiuebins. Also Ceillier, t. 2, 

p. 237. 

This learned father and apostolic man flourished in the second 
age. He was bj birth a Sicilian, and by profession a stoic philo- 
sopher. For his eloquence he is styled by St. Clement of Alex- 
andria the Sicilian Bee. His esteem for virtue led him into an 
acquaintance with the Christians, and being charmed with tlie 
innocence and sanctity of their conversation he opened his eyes 
to the truth. He studied the holy scriptures under the disciples 
of the apostles, and his thirst after sacred learning brought 
him to Alexandria in Egypt, where the disciples of St* Mark 
had instituted a celebrated school of the Christian doctrine, 
Paatasnns sought not to display his talents in that great mart of 
literature and commerce ; but his great progress in sacred learn- 
ing was after some time discovered, and he was drawn out of 
that obscurity in which feis humility sought to live buried. Be- 
ing placed at the head of the Christian school some time before 
the year 179, which was the first of Commodus, by his learn- 
ing and excellent manner of teaching he raised its reputation 
above all the schools of the philosophers, and the lessons which 
he read, and which were gathered from the flowers of the pro- 
phets and apostles, conveyed light and knowledge into the 
minds of all his hearers, as St. Clement of Alexandria, his 
eminent scholar, says of him. The Indians who traded to 
Alexandria, entreated him to pay their country a visit, in or- 
der to confute their Brachmans. Hereupon he forsook his 
school, and was established by Demetrius, who was made bishop 
of Alexandria in 189, preacher of the gospel to the Eastern 
nations. Eusebius tells us that St. Pantaenus found some seeds 
>f the faith already sown in the Indies, and a book of the gos- 
^1 of St. Matthew in Hebrew, which St. Bartholomew liad 
carried thither. He brought it back with him to Alexandria, 
whither he returned after he had sealously emplovod some 



July 7.] st. pantjenus. 59 

jears in instructing the Indians in the faith. The public 
school was at that time governed by St. Clement, but St. Pan- 
tsenus continued to teach in private till in the reign of Cara- 
calla, consequcQtlj before the year 216, he closed a noble and 
excellent life by a happy death, as Rufinus writes.(l) His 
name is inserted in all western martyrologies on the 7th of 
July. 

The beauty of the Christian morality, and the sanctity of its 
faithful professors, which by their charms converted this true 
philosopher, appear no where to greater advantage than when 
they are compared with the imperfect and often false virtue of 
the most famous sages of the heathen world.* Into what con- 
tradictions and gross errors did they fall, even about the divi- 
nity itself and the sovereign good ! To how many vices did 
they give the name of virtues I How many crimes did they 
canonize! It is true they showed indeed a zeal for justice, a 
contempt of riches and pleasures, moderation in prosperity, psr- 

(1) Rufin. b. 5, c. 10. 



* Socrates in all things he said, used to add this form of speech, ** By 
my Demon's leave." Just upon the point of expiring, he ordered a 
cock to be sacrificed to Esculapius. (Plato's Phaedo sub finem.) And in 
his trial we read one article of bis impeachment to have been a charge of 
unnatural lust. Thales, the prince of naturalists, being asked by Croe- 
sus what God was, put off that prince from time to time, saying, *' I will 
consider on it.'* But the meanest mechanic amonff the Cnristians can 
ez{dain himself intelligibly on the Creator of the Universe. Diogenes 
could not be contented in his tub without gratifying his passions. And 
when with his dirty feet he trod upon Plato's costly carpets, crying that; 
he trampled upon the pride of Plato, he did this, as Plato answered him, 
with greater pride. Pythagoras affected tyranny at Thurium, and Zeno 
at Fyrene. Lycurgus made away with himself because he was unable to 
bear the thought of the Lacedasmonians correcting the severity of his 
laws. Anaxagoras had not fidelity enough to restore to strangers the . 
goods which they had committed to his trust. Aristotle could not sit 
easy till he proudly made his friend Hermias sit below him ; and he was 
as gross a flatterer of Alexander for the sake of vanity, as Plato was of 
Dionysius for his belly. From Plato and Socrates the stoics derived their 
proud maxim, "The wise man is self-suflicient." Epictctus himself 
allows " to be proud of the conquest of any vice." Aristotle (Ethic ad 
Kicom. 1. 10, c. 7,) and Cicero patronize revenge. See B. Cumberland 
of the Laws of Nature, c. 9, p. 346. Abbe Batteux demonstrates the 
impiety and vices of Epicurus mingled with some virtues and great 
moral truths. (La Morale d'Epicure, k Paris, 1758.) The like blemishes 
r^ay be found in the doctrine and lives of all the other boasted philoso- 
phers of paganism. See Theodoret. Dp. curandis Gnecor. afifectibos, &c. 



60 ST. WILLIBALD, B. C. [JULY 7. 

tience in adversities, generosity, courage, and disinterested- 
ness. But these were rather shadows and phantoms than rea 
rirtues, if they sprang from a principle of vanity and pride, or 
were infected with the poison of interestedness-or any other vi- 
tiated intention, which they often betrayed, nay sometimes 
openly avowed, and made a subject of their vain boasts. 

SAINT WILLIBALD, BISHOP OF AICHSTADT, C. 

He was son of the holy king St. Richard, and was bom about 
the year 704 in the kingdom of the West- Saxons, about the 
place where Southampton now stands. When he was three 
years old his life was despaired of in a violent sickness ; but 
when all natural remedies proved unsuccessful, his parents car- 
ried him and laid him at the foot of a great cross which was 
erected in a public place near their house, according to the cus- 
tom in Catholic countries to this day. There they poured 
forth their prayers with great fervour, and made a promise to 
God that in case the child recovered they would consecrate 
him to the divine service. God accepted their pious offering, 
and the child was immediately restored to his health. St. 
Richard kept the child two years longer at home, but only re- 
garded him as a sacred depositum committed to him by God ; 
and when he was five years old placed him under the Abbot 
Egbald, and other holy tutors in the monastery of Waltheim. 
The young saint, from the first use of his reason, in all his 
thoughts and actions seemed to aspire only to heaven, and his 
heart seemed full only of God and his holy love. He left this 
monastery about the year 721, when he was seventeen years 
old, and his brother Winibald nineteen, to accompany his fa- 
ther and brother in a pilgrimage of devotion to the tombs of 
the apostles at Rome, and to the Holy Land. They visited 
many churches in France on their road ; but St Richard died 
at Lucca, where his relics are still venerated in the church of 
St. Fridian, and he is commemorated in the Roman Martyro- 
logy on the 7th of February. The two sons went on to Rome^ 
and there took the monastic habit 

Above two years after this, Winibald having been obliged to 
it}lurn to England, St. YTiUibald, with two or three young Eng- 



SlTLr T] «T. WILUBALD, B, a 61 

lishmen, net out to visit the holy places which Christ had 
sanctified by his sacred presence on earth/ They added most 
6evere mortifications to the incredible fatigues of their journey, 
living only on bread and water, and at land using no other bed 
than the bare ground. They sailed first to Cyprus and thence 
into Syria. At Emesa St. Willibald was taken by the Sara- 
cens for a spy, was loaded with irons, and suffered much in se- 
vere confinement for several months, till certain persons, who 
were charmed with his wonderful virtue, apd moved with com- 
passion for his disaster, satisfied the caliph of his innocence, 
and procured his enlargement. The holy pilgrims expressed 
their gratitude to their benefactors, and pursued their journey 
to the holy places. They resolved in visiting them to follow 
our Divine Redeemer in the course of his mortal life; and 
therefore they began their devotions at Nazareth. Our saint 
passed there some days with his companions in the continual 
contemplation of the infinite mercies of God in the great mys< 
tery of the incarnation ; and the sight of the place in which it 
was wrought drew from his eyes streams of devout tears during 
all the time of his stay in that town. From Nazareth he went 
to Bethlehem, and thence into Egjpt, making no account of 
the fatigues and hardships of his journey, and assiduously me- 
ditating on what our Blessed Redeemer had suffered in the 
same. He returned to Nazareth, and thence travelled to Cana, 
Caphamaum, and . Jerusalem. In this last place he made a 
long stay to satisfy his fervour in adoring Christ in the places 
where he wrought so many great mysteries, particularly on the 
mountains of Calvary and Olivet, the theatres of his sacred 
ieath and ascension He likewise visited all the famous mo- 
nasteries, lauras, and hermitages in that country, with an ar- 
dent desire of learning and imitating all the most perfect prac* 
tices of virtue, and whatever might seem most conducive to the 
tanctification of his souL The tender and lively sentiments of 
devotion with which his fervent contemplation on the holy mys- 
teries of our redemption inspired him at the sight of all those 
sacred places, filled his devout soul with heavenly consolations, 
and made on it strong and lasting impressions. In his return 
<i severe sickneps at Aeon exercised his patience and resign at i^xt 

VOL, VII. B 



6*2 tfT. WtUABALD, B. C. [JULY 7. 

After seren jean etdplojed in this pilgrimage be arrived safe 
with his companions in Italj. 

The celebrated monastery of Mount Cassino baring been 
ktely repaired bj Pope Gregory II., the saint chose that house 
for his residence, and his fervent example contributed very 
much to settle in it the primitive spirit of its holj institute dur- 
ing the ten years that he lived there. He was first appointed 
sacristan, afterwards dean or superior over ten monks, and 
during the last eight years porter, which was an office of great 
trust and importance, and required a rooted habit of virtue 
which might suffer no abatement by external employs and fre- 
quent commerce with seculars. It happened that in 738 St. 
Boniface, coming to Rome, begged of Pope Gregory III. that 
Willibald, who was his cousin, might be sent to assist him in 
his missions in Germany. The pope desired to see the monk, 
and was much delighted with the history of his travels, and 
edified with his virtue. In the close of their conversation, he 
acquainted him of Bishop Boniface's request. Willibald desired 
to go back at least to obtain the leave and blessing of his abbot ; 
but the pope told him his order sufficed, and commanded him 
to go without more ado into Germany. The saint replied that 
he was ready to go wheresoever his holiness should think fit. 
Accordingly he set out for Thuringia, where St. Boniface then 
was, by whom he was ordaiaed priest. His labours in the 
country about Aichstadt, in Franconia and Bavaria, were 
crowned with incredible success, and he was no less powerful in 
words than in works. 

In 746 he was consecrated by St. Boniface bishop of Aich- 
stadt. This dignity gave his humility much to sufier, but it 
exceedingly excited his zeal. The cultivation of so rough a 
vineyard was a laborious and painful task ; but his heroic pa^ 
tience and invincible meekness overcame all difficulties. His 
charity was most tender and compassionate, and he had a sin- 
gular talent in comforting the afflicted. He founded a monas- 
tery which resembled in discipline that of Mount Cassino, to 
which he often retired. But his love of solitude diminished 
not his pastoral solicitude for his flock. He was attentive to 
all their spiritual necessities, he visited dften every part of his 



July 7«j 8t. hedda, b. c. 6.1 

charge, and instracted all his people with indefatigahle zeal and 
charity. His fasts were most austere, nor did he allow himaei! 
anj indulgence in them or in his lahours on account of hit 
great age, till his strength was entirely exhausted. Having la- 
boured almost fortj-iive years in regulating and sanctifying his 
diocess, he died at Aichstadt on the 7th of June, 790, being 
eighty-seven years old. He was honoured, with miracles, and 
buried in his own cathedral. Pope Leo YII. canonized him in 
938. In 1 270 the Bishop HUdebrand built a church in his ho- 
nour, into which his relics were translated, and are honourably 
preserved to this day ; but a portion is honoured at Fumec in 
Flanders. See the three lives of St. Willibald, written by con- 
temporary authors, especially that by a nun of his sister St. 
Walburga's monastery. She gives from the 8aint'svX)wn relation 
a curious and useful description of the Holy Land, as it stood 
in that age ; which is rendered more curious by the notes of 
Mabillon, and those of Basnage in his edition of Canisius'a 
Lect. Antique. On St. Willibald, see Solier the BoUandist, 
t. 2. Julij, p. 485. 

ST. HEDDA, B. C. 

Hs was an English Saxon, a monk of the monastery of St. 
HUda, and was made bishop of the West-Saxons in 676. He 
resided first at Dorchester, near Oxford, but afterwards re- 
moved his see to Winchester. King Ceadwal going to Rome 
to be baptized died there, and was buried in the church of St. 
Peter in 688. His kinsman Ina succeeded him in the throne.* 



* King Ina ruled the West-Saxons thirty .seven years with great glory, 
from the abdication of Ceadwalla, who died at Borne. Ina vanquished 
the Welch, several domestic rebels, and foreign enemies : made many 
pious foundations, and rebuilt in a sumptuous manner the abbey of 6Ia»- 
tenbury. Kalph or Hanulph Higden in his Polychronicdn, and others 
say this king first established the Rome-scot or Feterpence, which was a 
collection of a penny from every house in his kingdom paid yearly to the 
see of Rome. By considering the vanities of the world, and moved by 
the fluent exhortations of the queen his wife, he renounced the world 
in 728, in the highest pitch of human felicity, and leaving his kingdom 
to £thelheard his kinsman, travelled to Rome, was there shorn a monk, 
and grew old in that mean habit. His wife accompanied him thither, 
confirmed him in that course, and imitated his example : so that living 
not far from each other in mutual love, and in the constant exercises of 
penance and devotion, they departed this life at Rome, not without doing 



64 ST. EDELBUEOAc (Jlil-Y 7^ 

Jo his wise and wholesome laws, the most ancieHt extant amosg 
'hose of our English Saxon kings, enacted bj him in a great 
council of bishops and aldermen in 693, he declares that in 
drawing them up he had been assisted by the counsels of St. 
Hedda and St. Erconwald.(l) In these laws theft is ordained 
to be punished with cutting off a hand or a foot ; robbery on. 
the highway, committed by a band not under seven in number, 
\rith death, unless the criminal redeem his life according to the^ 
estimation of his head. Church dues are ordered to be paid 
under a penalty oi forty shillings ; and if any master order a 
servant to do any work on a Sunday, the servant is made free„ 
and the master amerced thirty shillings. St. Hedda governed 
his church with great sanctity about thirty years, and departed 
to the Lord on the 7th of July, 705, Bede(2) and William of 
l||Ialmesbury assure us, that his tomb was illustrated by many 
miracles. His name is placed in the Roman Martyrology. SeQ 
Solier the Bollandist^ t. 2. Julij, p. 482. 

ST. EDELBURGA, V. 

She Vas daughter to Anna king of the East Atigles, and out 
of a desire of attaining to Christian perfection, went into France,, 
and there consecrated herself to God in the monastery of Fare-. 
moutier, in the forest of Brie, in the government of which she 
succeeded its foundress St. Fara. After her death her body 
remained uncorrupt, as Bcde testifies.(3) She is honoured in 
the Roman, French, and English Martyrologies on this day.* 
In thfese latter her niece St. Earcongota is named with her. 
She was daughter to Earconbercht king of Kent, and of St. 
Sexburga; accompanied St Edelburga to Faremoutier, and 

(1) Spelman Cone. Brit. t. 1. (2) B. 5. eh. 19. 

(a) Bcde, b. 3, c. 6. 



divers miracles, as WiUiam of Malmesbury, and H. Huntingdon write. 
In 693, Sebbi, the pious king of the EasUSaxons, preferred also a private 
life to a crown, took the monastic habit ^vith the blessing of Bishop 
Whaldere, successor to St. Erkenwald in the see of London, after be- 
stowing a great sum of money in charitj', and soon after departed this 
life in the odour of sanctity. See Bede, b. 4, c. 11. 

♦ On St. Edelburga, see Solier the BoUandist, ad diem 7 Julij, t. 2, p, 
461 . She is called in French St. Aubierge. See pn her sdso Da Plesais, 
Hist, de Meaux. 



^XjLTt T.] ST. FELIX, B. C. 65 

there taking the veil with her, lived a great example of all 
virtues, and was honoured after her happy death by many mira- 
cles, as Bede relates. Hereswide, the wife of king Anna, the 
mother of many saints, after the death of her husband, retired 
also into France, and consecrated herself to Grod in the famous 
monastery of Cale or Chelles, fire leagues from Paris, near the 
Marne, (founded by St. Clotilda, but chiefly endowed by St 
Bathildes,) where she persevered, advancing daily in holy 
fervour to her happy death. See the history of the monastery 
of Chelles in the sixth tome of the late history of the diocess of 
Paris, by Abb6 Lebeuf, and Solier on this day, p. 481, &c. 

ST. FELIX, BISHOP OF NANTES, C. 

The most illustrious among the bishops of Nantes was saint 
Felix, a person of the first rank in Aquitain, some say of Bour- 
ges in the First Aquitain ; others more probably think of the 
Second Aquitain on the sea-coast and nearer Brittany. In the 
world he was more illustrious by his virtue, his eloquence, and 
learning, than by his dignities and high birth. The Greek 
language was jis familiar to him as his own ; he was a poet and 
orator, and seems from Fortunatus's expression to have written a 
panegyric on the queen St Radegundes in verse. He had been 
Carried when he was called to succeed Evemer, the holy bishop 
of Nantes, toward the close of the year 549, in the 37th year <rf 
his age. His zeal for discipline and good order appeared in the 
regulations he made for his own diocess, and in the decrees of 
the third council of Paris in 557, in the second of Tours in 566, 
and the fourth of Paris in 573. His charity to the poor had no 
other bounds but those of their necessities, and considering that 
the revenues of the Church were the patrimony of the poor, he 
reserved to himself only the prudent and troublesome ad* 
ministration of them for their use. He sold for them and thf 
Church his own patrimony, and made it his study and earnest 
endeavour that no one in his diocess should pass unrelieved in 
distress. His predecessor bad formed a project of buildiug -^ 
cathedral within the walls of the city of Nantes, which Felix 
executed in the most magnificent manner. Fortunatus describes 
it to have been composed of three naves, of which the middle 
was supported by great pillars. A great cupola was-raised ia 



66 PT. BENEDICT XI,, P. C. [Jv^T 7. 

the middle. The church was covered with tin, and within was 
only azure, gold, mosaic paintings, pilasters, foliages, varioi»s 
Aguiies and other ornaments. Euphronius, archhishop of Tour9, 
and the hishops of Angers, Mans, Bennes, Poitiers, and An- 
gouleme performed the dedication $ no hishop of the Britons 
was invited to the ceremon j ; from which it appears that their 
eommerce with the French was not entirely free. The Britons 
were then possessed of no lands in the diocess of Nantes exce]>t 
the territory of Croisic, in which was the palace of Aula 
Quiriaca or Guerrande, vulgarly Warand, probably so called 
from Guerech L the British count of Yannes, who resided 
there. Canao, one of his successors, when Felix was made 
bishop, had put to death three of his brothers, and held a fourth 
named Macliau in prison. St. Felix by his intercession saved 
his life, and obtained his liberty. St. Gregory of Tours com- 
plains that bishop Felix had been prepossessed by false informa- 
tions against Peter, Gregory's brother, and accused him of fa- 
vouring an unwOTthy nephew ; but in other places bears testimony 
to his eminent sanctity, which is much extolled by Fortunatus 
and others. . Guprech IL count of Vannes, plundered the diocessep 
of Bennes and Yannes, and repulsed the troops which kinj^ 
Chilperic sent against him ; but at the entreaties of St. Felix, 
withdrew his forces, and made peace. The holy prelate died 
on the 8th of January in 584, the seventieth year of his age, of 
his episcopal dignity thirty three. 

He is honoured at Nantes, of which he was the sixteenth 
bishop from St Cl^ir, on the 7th of July, the day of the trans- 
lation of his relics. See Fortunatus, 1. 3. c. 4, 5, 6, 7- St. 
Gregory of Tours, 1. 5. c. 5. Ceillier, 1. 16. p. 562. M. Travers, 
Histoire abr^g^e des E^^ques de Nantes, tome 7. part 2. des 
M^moires de Litt^rature recueillis par P. Desmolets de I'Ora- 
toire. Stilting the Bollandist, t. 2. Jul. p. 470. Lobineau, Yi«sf 
des SS.de Bretagne, p. 121. 

ST. BENEDICT XL, POPE, C. 

His family name was Nicholas BoqasinL He was a native of 
Treviso, which city was then an independent commonwealth, 
but since the year 1336 is subject to that of Yenice. He Wan 
Som in 1240, and studied first at Treviso, and afterwarda at 



-rfSfc -— * 



JCLY 7^} ST, BENEDICT Itt, P. O, 67 

Venice, where, at fourteen years of age* ae took the habit of St. 
Dominick. He seemed desirous to set no bounds to his fervour 
and fidelity in the practioe of every means of improving his 
soul daily in virtue ; and, during fourteen years, enriched h>i 
mind with an uncommon store of sacred learning. After this 
term he was appointed professor and preacher at Venice and 
Bologna, and with incredible fruit communicated to others those 
spiritual riches which he had treasured up in silence and retire 
ment, being always ci^eful by the same means to preserve and 
increase his own stock. He wrote several sermons and com- 
ments on the holy scripture, which are still extant. He was 
chosen provincial of Lombardy, and, in 1296, the ninth general 
of his Order. On that occasion, by a pathetic circular letter,(l) 
he exhorted his brethren to a love of poverty, hnmili^, retire- 
ment, prayer, charity, and obedience. In 1297 he was sent by 
Boniface VIII. nuncio into France, to be the mediator of peace 
between that nation and the English; and was created cardinal 
during his residence there in 1298. Nothing but the strict 
command of his Holiness could have obliged him to. accept that 
dignity, which cost him many tears. He was made soon after 
bishop of Ostia, and dean of the sacred college ; and in 1 301 
went legate a latere into Hungary, to endeavour to compose th^ 
differences which divided that nation into factions, and had 
already laid it waste by a dreadful civil war ; in which cardinal 
Bocasini succeeded to a miracle. He also abolished in that 
country several superstitious practices, and other abuses and 
9eandals. He afterwards exerted his zeal in Austria and at 
Venice, being successively legate in both those places. 

Boniface VIII. dying on the 11th of October, 1303, the car^. 
dinals entered the conclave on the 21st of the same month, and 
on the day following unanimously chose our saini. pope. He 
was seized with trembling at the news ; but being compelled to 
acquiesce, was crowned on the following Sunday. He continued 
his former practices of humility, mortification, and penance. 
When his mother came to his court in rich attire, he refused to 
see hertiU she had put on again her former mean appareL 
Rome was at that time torn by civil divisions^ especially by the 
factions of the Colonnas against the late pope ; but the modera- 
Ci) PuUiahed hy Doro. Martenne, Ane^^ot. t. 4* 



6S AT. EUZABETB, QUCEV. [^JUX«T & 

lion, meekness, snd prudence of our saint soon restored tbe 
whole country to perfect tranquillitj. He pardoned the Colon* 
nas and other rebels, Sciarra Cobnna and William of Nogarei 
excepted, who remained under the former sentence of proscrip- 
tion* He pacified Denmark, and other kingdoms of the NortJi, 
and appeased the State and Church of France. He reconciled 
the cities of Venice and Padua without effusion cf blood. He 
joined his zealous endeavours with Helena, queen of Servia, in 
the conversion of her son Orosius. This good pope died the 
martyr of peace, to make which reign over the whole Christian 
world he seemed onlj to have lived. Having sat onlj eight 
months and seventeen days, he departed this life at Perugia, on 
the 6th of July, in the year of our Lord, 1304, of his age sixty- 
three. Some say be died of poison secretly given him by the 
contrivance of certain wicked men who were enemies to the 
public tranquillity. He was honoured by miracles, examined 
and approved by the bishop of Perugia, and attested by Platina 
And' other historians. See Cone. t. 10. also his life collected by 
Pagi, in his Annals, and in an express work by the late learned 
Dominican, F. Peter Thomas Campana ; and Yie de S. Benoit 
XL ou Caract^re de la Saintet^ du B. Benoit XL k Toulouse, 
1739- See also F. Touron, Hommes Hlustres, t 1. L 7. p. 655. 
and Benedict XIY. de Canonia, t. 4. Append, and in bis new 
Roman Martyrology on the 7th of July. 



JULY VIIL 
ST. ELIZABETH, QUEEN OF PORTUGAL. 

From her Aathentie LifB, written bj a Frandacaii friar ; Mariana, and 
other Spanish historians. See Januing the Bo]landitt> Julg, t. 2^ ad 
diem. 4» p. 169. 

A. D. 133d. 

St. EumaBVTH was daughter of Peter lEL king of Anagon, 
and granddaughter of James L who bad been educated ander 
the oare of St Peter Nolasco, and was attraamed the Saint» and 
from Ike taking of Minorca and Yakntta, B^pognator or iJtm 
OoiMiaeior* Her mother, CoD8iantia» vaa daughter of Manfred 



JuiiT 8.] 8T< ElilZABJcTH, qCEEV. 69 

king of Sicilj, and grandchild to the emperor Frederic If. 
Our aaint was bom in 1271, and received at the baptismal font 
by the name of Elizabeth, from het aunt, St. Elizabeth of 
Hungary, who had been canonized by Gregory IX. in 1235. 
Her birth established a good understanding between her grand- 
father James, who was then on the throne, and her father, 
whose quarrel had divided the whole kingdom. The former 
took upon himself the care of her education, and inspired her 
with an ardour for piety above her age, though he died in 1276 
(having reigned sixty-^three years,) before she had completed 
the sixth year of her age. 

Her father succeeded to the crown, and was careful to place 
most virtuous persons about his daughter, whose example might 
be to her a constant spur to all virtue. The young princess was 
of a most sweet and mild disposition, and from her tender years 
had no relish for anything but what was conducive to piety and 
devotion. It was doing her the most sensible pleasure if any 
one promised to lead her to some chapel to say a prayer. At 
eight years of age she began to fast on vigils, and to practise 
great self-denials ; nor could she bear to hear the tendemesi 
of her years and constitution alleged as a reason that she ought 
not to fast or macerate her tender body. Her fervour made her 
eagerly to desire that she might have a share in every exercise 
of virtue which she saw practised by others, and she had been 
already taught that the frequent mortification of the senses, and 
still more of the will, is to be joined with prayer to obtain the 
grace which restrains the passions, and prevents their revolU 
How little is this most important maxim considered by those 
pkrents who excite and fortify the passions of children, by 
teaching them a love of vanities, and indulging them in grati- 
fications of sense I If rigorous fasts suit not their tender age, a 
submission of the will, perfect obedience, and humble modesty are 
in no time of life more indispensably to be inculcated ; nor is 
any abstinence more necessary than that by which children are 
taught never to drink or eat out of meals, to bear several little 
denials in thc^n without uneasiness, and never eagerly to crave 
anything. The easy and happy victory of Elizabeth over her^ 
self was owing to this early and perfect temperance, submissiv&- 
and sincere humilitv Esteeming virtue her only advao- 



70 ST. BUZABETH, QHEHN. [JuLY 8, 

iage and delighti she abhorred romances and idle entertain- 
ments, shunned the usual amusements of children, and was an 
enemy to all the vanities of the world. She could bear no 
other songs than sacred hjmns and psalms ; and from her child- 
hood said every day the whole office of the breviary, in which 
.no priest could be more scrupulously exact. Her tenderness 
and compassion for the poor, made her even in that tender age 
to be styled their mother. 

At twelve years of age she was given in marriage to Diony- 
sius, king of PortugaL That prince had considered in her, 
birth, beauty, riches, and sprightliness of genius more than 
virtue; yet be allowed her an entire liberty in her devotions, 
tind exceedingly esteemed and admired her extraordinary piety. 
She found no temptation to pride in the dazzling splendour of 
a crown, and could say with Esther, that her heart never found 
any delight in the glory, riches, and grandeur with which she 
was surrounded. She was sensible that regularity in our ac- 
tions is necessary to virtue, this being in itself most agreeable 
to God, who shows in all his works how much he is the lover 
of order ; also, a prudent distribution of time fixes the fickle^ 
iiess of the human mind, hinders frequent omissions of pious exer 
cises, and is a means to prevent our being ever idle and being 
governed by humour and caprice in what we do, by which motives 
a disguised self-love easily insinuates itself into our ordinary 
aetiona. Our saint therefore planned for herself a regular di&- 
tribation of her whole time, and of her religious exercises, 
which she never interrupted, unless extraordinary occasions of 
duty or charity obliged her to change the order of her daily 
practices. She rose very early every morning, and afier*a 
long morning exercise, and a pious meditation, she recited 
matins, lauds and prime of the church office. Then she heard 
mass, at which she communicated firequently every week. She 
said every day ahio the little office of our Lady, and that of the 
dead : and in the afternoon had other regular devotions after 
even«aong or vespers. She retired often into her oratory to 
her pious books, and allotted certain hours to attend her do- 
mestic affairs, public business, or what she owed to odiem. 
All her spare time slie employed in pious reading, or in work- 
ii^ ior the altar, or the poor, and she made hejr ladies of bomiiir 



Jolt 8.3 tr. sxizabeth, queeh. 71 

do the like. She found no time to spend in vain sports wed 
i«creationSy or in idle discourse or entertainments. She wai 
most abstemious in her diet» mean in her attire, humble, meeic» 
and affiible in converBation, and wholly bent upon the service 
of God in all her actions. Admirable was her spirit of com- 
punction, and of holj pra3rer ; and she poured forth her heart 
before God with most feeling sentiments of divine love, and 
oHea watered her cheeks and the very ground with abundant 
tears of sweet devotion. Frequent attempts were made to pre- 
vail with her to moderate her austerities ; but she always an- 
swered, that if Christ assures us that his spirit cannot find 
plaee in a life of softness and pleasure, mortification is no where 
more necessary than on the throne, where the passions find 
more dangerous incentives. She fasted three days, a week, 
many vigils besides those prescribed by the church ; all Ad- 
vent ; a Lent of devotion, from the feast of St. John Baptist to 
the feast of the Assumption ; and soon after this she began 
another Lent, which she continued to St Michael's day. On 
all Fridays and Saturdays, on the eves of all festivals of the 
Blessed Virgin and the apostles, and on many other days her 
fast was on bread and water. She often visited churches and 
places of devotion on foot. 

Charity to the poor was a distinguishing part of her charac- 
ter. She gave constant orders to have aU pilgrims and poor 
strangers provided for with lodging and necessaries. She made 
it her business to seek out, and secretly relieve persons of good 
M)ndition who were reduced to necessity, yet out of shame durst 
not make known their wants. She was very liberal in furnish- 
ing fortunes to poor young women, that they might ralarry ac- 
cording to their condition, and not be exposed to the danger of 
losing their virtue. She visited the sick, served them, and 
dressed and kissed their loathsome sores. She founded in diffe- 
rent parts of the kingdom many pious establishments, particu- 
larly an hospital near her own palace at Coimbra, a house for peni- 
tent womeb who had been seduced into evil courses, at Torres- 
Novas, and an hospital for foundlings, or those children who, 
for want of due provision, are exposed to the danger of perish- 
ing by poverty, or the neglect and cruelty of unnatural parents. 
. She was utterly regardless of her own conveniences, aad so 



TJ rP. ELIZABETH, QUEBK. [JlTLf ^ 

attentive to the poor and afflicted persons of the whole king* 
dom, that she seemed ahnost wholly to belong to them ; not that 
•he neglected any other duties which she owed to her neigh* 
hour, for she made it her principal study to pay to her husband 
the most dutiful respect, love, and obedience, and bore his in* 
juries with invincible meekness and patience. Though King 
Dionysius was a friend of justice, and a valiant, bountiful, 
and compassionate prince, yet he was, in his youth, a worldly 
man, and defiled the sanctity of the nuptial state with abomi* 
nable lusts. The good queen used all her endeavours to reclaim 
him, grieving most sensibly for the offence against God, and 
the scandal given to the people ; and she never ceased to weep 
herself, and to procure the prayers of others for his conversion. 
She strove to gain him only by courtesy, and with constant 
■weetness and cheerfulness cherished his natural children, and 
took great care of their education. By these means she sof* 
tened the heart of the king, who, by the succour of a powerful 
grace, rose out of the filthy puddle in which he had wallowed 
for a long time, and kept ever after the fidelity that was due to 
his virtuous consort. He instituted the Order of Christ in 
1318; founded, with a truly royal magnificence, the university 
of Coimbra, and adorned his kingdom with public buildings. 
Hia extraordinary virtues, particularly his liberality, justice, 
and constancy, are highly extolled by the Portuguese, and after 
his entire conversion, he was the idol and glory of his people. 
A little time before his perfect conversion there happened an 
extraordinary accident The queen had a very pious, faithful 
page, whom she employed in the distribution of her secret alms. 
A wicked fellow-page envying him on account of this favour, 
to which his virtue and services entitled him, treacherously 
suggested to his majesty that the queen showed a fondness for 
that page. The prince, who by hi^ own sensual heart was 
easily inclined to judge iU of others, gave credit to the slander, 
and resolved to take away the life of the innocent youth. For 
this purpose he gave order to a lime-burner, that if on 'such a 
day he sent to him a page with this errand to inquire, *' Whether 
he had fulfilled the king's commands ?^ he should take him 
and east him into the lime-kiln, there to be burnt ; for that 
death he had justly incurred, and the execution was expedient 



July R.] or. euzabeth, qusktt. TJt 

for the king's service. On the day appointed he despatched the 
page with this message to the lime-kiln ; but the devout jouth 
on the road passing bj a church, heard the bell ring at the ele* 
vation at mass, went in and prayed there devoutly ; for it was 
his pious custom, if ever he heard the sign given by the bell 
for the elevation, always to go thither^ and not depart till ma6« 
was ended: It happened, on that occasion, that as the first was 
Bot a whole mass, and it was with him a constant rule to hear 
mass every day, he staid in the church, and heard successively 
two other masses. In the meantime, the king, who was impa- 
tient to know if his orders had been executed, sent the informer 
to the lime-kiln, to inquire whether his commands had been 
obeyed ; but as soon as he was come to the kiln, and had asked 
the question, the man supposing him to be the messenger meant 
by the king's order, seized him, and threw him into the burn- 
ing lime, where he was soon consumed. Thus was the innocent 
protected by his devotion, and the slanderer was overtaken by 
divine justice. The page who had heard the masses went after- 
wards to the lime-kiln, and having asked whether his majesty's 
conmiands had been yet executed^ brought him word back thut 
they were. The king was almost out of himself with surprise 
when he saw him come back with this message, and being soou 
informed of the particulars, he easily discovered the innocence 
of the pious youth, adored the divine judgments, and ever afte- 
zespected the great virtue and sanctity of his queen. 

St. Elizabeth had by the king two children, Alphonsus, who 
afterwards succeeded his father, and Constaiitia, who was mar-' 
ried to Ferdinand IV., king of Castille. This son, when grown 
up, married the infanta of Castille, and soon after revolting 
against his own father, put himself at the head of an army of 
malecontents. St. Elizabeth had recourse to weeping, prayer, 
fasting, and almsdeeds, and exhorted her son in the strongest 
terms to return to his duty, oonjuVing her husband at the same 
time to forgive him. Pope John XXII. wrote to her, com- 
mending her religious and prudent conduct ; but certain court 
flatterers whispering to the king that she was suspecied^of fa- 
vouring her son, he, whom jealousy made credulous, banished 
her to the city of Alanquer. The queen received this disgrace 
wit^ admirable patience and i)eaoe of xsnud* and made use of 



•/^ ST. ELIZABKTH, QUEEIT. fJui*T 6 

the opportunity which her retirement afforded, to redouble her 
austerities and devotions. She never would entertain any cor- 
respondence with the malecontents, nor listen to any suggefr* 
tions from them. The king himself admired her goodness, 
ti-ieekness, and humility under her disgrace ; and shortly after 
called her back to court, and showed her greater love and re- 
spect than ever. In all her troubles she committed herself to 
the sweet disposal of divine providence, considering that she 
was always under the protection of God, her merciful father. 

Being herself of the most sweet and peaceable disposition, 
she was always most active and industrious in composing aSl 
differences between neighbours, especially in averting war, 
with the train of all the most terrible evils which attend it. 
She reconciled her husband and son, when their armies were 
marching one against the other ; and she reduced all the sub- 
jects to duty and obedience. She made peace between Ferdi- 
nand lY., king of Castille, and Alphonsus de la Cerda^ his 
cousin-german, who £spated tiie crown: likewise between 
James II., king of Arragon, her own brother, and Ferdinand 
J v., the king of Castille, her son-in-law. In order to effect 
this last she took a journey with her husband into both those 
kingdoms, and to the great satisfaction of the Christian world, 
^ put a happy period to all dissensions and debates between those 
states. Afler this charitable work, king Dionysius, having 
reigned forty-five years, fell sick. St. Elizabeth gave him most 
signal testimonies of her love and affection, scarcely ever leaving 
his chamber during his illness, unless to go to the church, and 
taking infinite pains to serve and attend him. But her main 
care and solicitude was to secure his eternal happiness, and to 
procure that he might depart this life in sentiments of perfect 
repentance and piety. For this purpose she gave bountiful 
alms, and caused many prayers and masses to be said. During 
his long and tedious illness *he gave great marks of sincere 
compunction, and died at Santaren, on the 6th of January, 
1325. As soon as he had expired, the queen retired into her 
oratory, commended his soul to God, and consecrathig herself 
to the divine service, put on the habit of the third Order of St. 
Francis. She attended the funeral pi-ocession, with her hus^ 
band's corpse, to Odiveras, where he had chosen his burying- 



JlXI SJ] ST. KWZABETH, QtTEK!f. 74 

place in a famoas church of Cistercian monks. Aflter a con- 
siderable staj there, she made a pilgrimage to Compostella, and 
returning to Odiveras, celebrated there her husband's anniver- 
sary with great solemnity ; after which she retired to a con- 
vent of Clares, which she had begnn to rebuild before the death 
of her husband. She was desirous to make her religious pro- 
fession, but was diverted from that design for some time upon 
a motive of charity, that she might continue to support an 
infinity of poor people by her alms and protection. She there- 
fore, contented herself at first with wearing the habit of the 
third Order, living in a house which she built contiguous to her 
great nunnery, in which she assembled ninety devout nuns. 
She often visited them, and sometimes served them at table, 
having for her companion in this practice of charity and hu- 
mility her daughter-in-law, Beatrix, the queen then reigning 
However, by authentic historical proofs it is evinced that be- 
fore her death she made her religious profession in the afore- 
said third Order, as Pope Urban YIIL, after mature discussion 
of those monuments, has declared.(l) 

A war being lighted up between her son Alphonsus IV.. 
sumamed the Brave, king of Portugal, and her grandson^ 
Alphonsus XI., king of Castille, and armies being set on foot^ 
she was startled at the news, and resolved to set out to recon- 
cile them, and extinguish the fire that was kindling. Her 
servants endeavoured to persuade her to defer her journey, on 
account of the excessive heats ; but she made answer that she 
could not better expend her health anl her life than by seeking 
to prevent the miseries and calamities of a war. The very 
news of her journey disposed both parties to peace. She went 
to Estremoz, upon the frontiers of Portugal and Castille, 
where her son was ; but she arrived ill of a violent fever, which 
she looked upon as a messenger sent by God to warn her that 
the time was at hand wherein he called her to himself. She 
strongly exhorted her son to the love of peace and to a holy 
life ; she confessed several times, received the holy viaticum on 
her knees at the foot of the altar, and shortly after extreme 
onction ; from which time she continued in fervent prayer, 

<1) Urban VHI. Constit. 58. Cum aicut. An. 1626. BuUar. Romau, 
i. .'». p. 120. 



T6 8T. PRocopius, M. [Jolt 8. 

often invoking the Blessed Virgin, and repeating these words : 
" Mary, mother of grace, mother of mercy, defend us from the 
wicked enemy, and receive us at the hour of our death." She 
appeared overflowing with heavenly joy, and with those con- 
solations of the Holy Ghost which make death so sweet to the 
saints ; and in the presence of her son, the king, and of her 
daughter-in4aw, she gave up her happy soul to God on the 4th 
of July, in the year 1336, of her age sixty-five. She was 
buried with royal pomp in the church of her monastery of poor 
Glares, at Coimbra, and honoured by miracles. Leo X., and 
Paul IV., granted an office on her festival; and in 1612 her 
iody was taken up and found entire. It is now richly en- 
ihrined in a magnificent chapel, built on purpose. She was 
canonized by Urban VIIL, in 1625, and the 8th of July ap- 
pointed for her festival. 

The characteristical virtue of St. Elizabeth was a love of 
peace. Ghrist, the prince of peace, declares his spirit to be the 
spirit of humility and meekness; consequently the spirit of 
peace. Variance, wrath, and strife are the works of the flesh, 
of envy, and pride, which he condemns, and which exclude 
from the kingdom of heaven. Bitterness and contention shut 
out reason, make the soul deaf to the motives of religion, and 
open the understanding to nothing but what is sinful. To find 
the way of peace we must be meek and patient, even under the 
most violent provocations ; we must never resent any wrong, 
nor return railing for railing, but good for evil ; we must re- 
gard passion as the worst of monsters, and must judge it as 
unreasonable to hearken to its suggestions as to choose a mad- 
man for our counsellor in matters of concern and difiiculty ; 
above all, we must abhor it not only as a sin, but as leading to 
a numberless variety of other grievous sins and spiritual evils. 
Blessed are the peacemakers^ and all who love and cultivate 
this virtue among men, they shall he called the children of 
Godf whose badge and image they bear, 

ST. PSOCOPIUS, M, 

Hk was a native of Jerusalem, but lived at Bethsan, otherwise 
pulled Scythopolis, where he Wfis reader in tlie church, and also 
performed the function of exorcist, in dispossessing demoniacSi 



JULY 8.J ST. PROCOPIUS, M. 77 

and that of interpreter of the Greek tongue into the Syro- 
Chaldaic* He was a divine man, say his acts, and had always 
lived in the practice of great austerity, and patience, and in 
perpetual chastity. He took no other sustenance than hread 
aud water, and usually abstained from all food two or three 
days together. He was well skilled in the sciences of the 
Grreeks, but much more in that of the holy scriptures ; the as- 
siduous meditation on which nourished his soul, and seemed 
also to give vigour and strength to his emaciated body. He 
was admirable in all virtues, particularly in a heavenly 
mf^ekness and humility. Dioclesian's bloody edicts against the 
Christians reached Piilestine in April, 303, and Procopius was 
the first person who received the crown of martyrdom in that 
country, in the aforesaid persecution. He was apprehended at 
Bethsan, and led, with several others, bound to Caesarea, our 
city, say the acts, and was hurried straight before Paulinus, 
prefect of the province.f The judge commanded the martyr 
to sacrifice to the gods. The servant of Christ answered he 
never could do it ; and this he declared with a firmness and 
resolution thet seemed to wound th* heart of the prefect as if it 
had been pierced with a dagger. The martyr added, there is 
no God but one, who is the author and preserver of the world. 
The prefect then bade him sacrifice to the four emperors, 
namely Dioclesian, Herculius, Galerius, and Constantius. This 
the saint again refused to do, and had scarcely returned his an- 
swer than die judge passed sentence upon him, and he was im- 
mediately led to execution and beheaded. He is honoured by 
the Greeks with the title of The Great Martyr. See his origi- 
nal Chaldaic Acts, published by Steph. Assemani, t. 2, p. 166, 
and a less accurate old Latin translation, given by Ruinart, 
and by Henry Valois, I^ot. in Euseb. 1. 8. The author of these 
acts was Eusebius of Caesarea, an eye-witness. 



*Grotius and others demonstrate the Greek lan^age to have been, in 
tlie first ages of Christianity, common in Palestine ; but this cannot be 
exten("'ed to all the country people, as this passage and other proofs 
clearly show. TTence Eusebius wrote his Acts of the Martyrs of Pales- 
tine in .Sj'ro.Chaldaic ; but abridged the same in Greek, in the eighth 
book of his Church History. 

f The old Latin Acts write his name Flavian, and some Fabian, by 
mistaking the Syriac name, which is written without vowels, 
vol- vn. F 



78 ST. WITHBURGE, V. [JtL? K 

SS. KILIAN. BISHOP, COLMAN, PRIEST, AND 
TOTNAN, DEACON, MM. 

KiiJAN or Kuln was a holy Irish monk, of noble Scottish ex- 
traction. With two zealous companions he travelled to Rome 
in 686, and obtained' of Pope Conon a commission to preach 
the gospel to the German idolaters in Franconia ; upon which 
occasion Kilian was invested with episcopal authority. The 
missionaries converted and baptized great nimibers at Wurtz- 
burg, and among others Gosbert, the duke of that name. 
This prince had taken to wife Geilana, the relict of his de- 
ceased broker ; and though he loved her tenderly, being put in 
inind by St. Kilian that such a marriage was condemned and 
void by the law of the gospel, he promised to dismiss her, say- 
ing that we are bound to love God above father, mother, or 
wife. Geilana was tormented in mind beyond measure at this 
resolution ; jealousy aiiC ambition' equally inflaming her breast ; 
and, as the vengeance of a wicked woman has no bounds, dur- 
ing the absence of the duke in a military expedition, she sent 
assassins, who privately murdered the three holy missionaries 
in 688. The ruffians were themselves pursued by divine ven- 
geance, and all perished miserably. St. Burchard, who in the 
following century was placed by St Boniface in the episcopal 
see of Wurtzburg, translated their relics into his cathedral. 
A portion of those of St. Kilian, in a rich shrine, was preserved 
in the treasury of the elector of Brunswic-Lunenburgh in 1713, 
as appears from the printed description of that cabinet. See 
the acts of these martyrs compiled by Egilward, monk of St. 
Burchard's at Wurtzburg, extant imperfect in the eleventh 
century, in Surius, t. 4, entire in Canisius, t. 4, par. 2, p. 628, 
and t, 3, ed. Basn. p. 174. Also among the Opuscula of Ser- 
rarius, printed at Mentz in 1611, in the collection of the 
writers of Wurtzburg published by Ludewig, p. 966, and in 
Mabillon and the BoUandists. See also Thesaurus reliquiarum 
Electoralis Brunsvico-Luneburgicus. Hanoverre, 1713, and 
Solier, t. 2, Julij, p. 600. 

ST. WITHBURGE, V. 

She was the youngest of the four fiisterxj, all saints, daugh- 



July 8.] st. withburge, v. 79 

tere of Annas the holy king of the East- Angles. In her trn- 
der years she devoted herself to the divine service, and led an 
aastere life in close solitude for several years at Ilolkham, an 
estate of the king her father, near the sea-coast in Norfolk, 
where a church, afterwards called Withburgstow, was built 
After the death of her father she changed her dwelling to ano- 
ther estate of the crown called Dereham. This is at present 
a considerable market town in Norfolk, but was then an ob< 
Bcure retired place. Withburge assembled there many devout 
virgins, and laid the foundation of a great ciiurch and nunnery, 
but did not live to finish the buildings. Her holy death hap- 
pened on the 17th of March, 743. Her body was interred in 
the church-yard at Dereham, and fifty-five years after, found 
uncorrupt, and translated into the church. One hundred and 
eeventy-six years after this, in 974, Brithnoth, (the first abbot of 
Ely, after that house, which had been destroyed by the Danes, 
was rebuilt,) with the consent of King Edgar, removed it to 
Ely, and deposited it near the bodies of her two sisters. In 
1 106 the remains of the four saints were translated into the new 
church and laid near the high altar. The bodies of SS. Sex- 
burga and Ermenilda were reduced to dust, except the bones. 
That of St. Audry was entire, and that of St. Withburge was 
not only sound but also fresh, and the limbs perfectly flexible. 
Warner, a monk of Westminster, showed this to all the people, 
by lifting up and moving several ways the hands, arms, and feet. 
Herbert, bishop of Thetford, who in 1094 translated his see to 
Norwich, and many other persons of distinction were eye- 
witnesses hereof. This is related by Thomas, a monk of Ely,(l) 
which he wrote the year following, 1107. This author tells us, 
tliat in the place where St. Withburge was first buried, in the 
church-yard of Dereham, a large fine spring of most clear 
water gushes forth.(2) It is to this day called St. Withburge's 
well, was formerly very famous, and is paved, cohered and in 
closed ; a stream from it forms another small well without the 
church-yard. See her life, and Leland, Ck)llect, vol. iii. p. 167. 

(1) Anglia Sacra, t. I, p. 613, published by WhartoD. 
Xl) lb. p. 606. 



80 8T. ORIMBALD, A. JuLY 8.] 

B. THEOBALD, ABBOT. 

He was by his virtue the great ornament of the illustrious fa- 
mily of Montmorency in France. He was born in the castle of 
Marli. His father, Bouchard of Montmorency, gave him an 
education suitable to his birth, and trained him up to the pro- 
fession of arms, in which 80 many heroes of that family have 
signalized themselves. But Theobald manifested from his in- 
fancy a strong inclination to a state of holy retirement, dreading 
the least shadow of danger which could threaten his innocence. 
He spent great part of his time in prayer, and resorted often to 
the church of the nunnery called Port-Royal, which had been 
founded in 1204 by Matthew of Montmorency, and on which 
his father Bouchard had bestowed so many estates that he was 
regarded as a second founder. Theobald took the Cistercian 
habit at Vaux de Cemay in 1220, and was chosen abbot of that 
house in 1234. He lived in the midst of his brethren as the 
servant of every one, and surpassed all others in his love of po- 
verty, silence, and holy prayer. He was highly esteemed by 
St. Lewis. His happy death happened in 1247. His shrine in 
his abbey is visited by a great concourse of people on the 
Whitsun-holidays. His solemn festival is there kept on the 
8th, and in some places on the 9th of July, probably the day 
on which the first translation of his relics was made. The 
BoUandists defer his life to the 8th of December, the day of 
bis death. See Le Nain, Histoire de Citeaux, t. y. 

ST. GRIMBALD, NATIVE OF ST. OMER, ABBOT. 

Hk was a mouk at St. Bertin's, and with his abbot entertained 
King Alfred in that abbey when that prince was going to 
Rome. This king, afterwards, by the advice of Eldred arch- 
bisliop of Canterbury, sent messengers to St. Bertin's to invite 
Grimbald over to England, where he arrived, Hugh being 
twelfUi abbot of that monastery, in the year 885. Asserius, a 
monk of Menevia or St. David's, whom king Alfred honoured 
with bis particular esteem, and who was afterwards bishop of 
Fhirebuniy was one of these messengers. 

Xljf OxaDiim wiitere tcU U3 that Grimbald was appointed 



;JrLY 8.j ST. GRIMBALD, A. 81 

first professor of divinity at Oxford, when he is said to liavc 
founded that university ; and that Asserius, John Erigena, and 
St. Neot taught there at the same time. The learned Mr. 
Heame says not only that Grimbald built St Peter's church 
in the East, but also that the eastern vault of his ancient struc- 
ture is standing to this day, of which he gives a plan. Upon 
the death of Eldred archbishop of Canterbury, King Alfred 
pressed Grimbald to accept that dignity ; but was not able to 
extort his consent, and was obliged to allow him to retire to the 
church of Winchester. King Alfred's son and successor Ed- 
ward, in compliance with his father's will, built the new Mins- 
tre close to the old, in which he placed secular canons, says 
Tanner, and appointed St. Grimbald abbot over them; this 
title being then given to a superior of secular or regular priests. 
About sixty years after, Bishop Ethelwolph brought in monks 
in place of those secular canons. King Henry I. removed this 
monastery of New Minstre out of the walls of the city to the 
place called Hide, which still continued sometimes to be called 
St. Grimbald's monastery. The body of the great King Alfred 
was removed by his son from the Old Minstre, and that of his 
queen, Alswithe, from the nunnery of Nunnaminstre, and de- 
posited together in the New Minstre, afterwards in Hide Mo- 
nastery. Nunnaminstre was founded by King Alfred, or rather 
by his queen, Alswithe. St. Edburge, a daughter of King 
Edward, was a nun, and, according to Leland, abbess there. 
St. Grimbald in his last sickness, though extremely feeble, 
gathered strength when the sacred viaticum was brought, rose 
out of bed, and received it prostrate on the ground. After this 
he desired to be left alone for three days, which he spen£ in 
close union of his heart with God. On the fourth day the com- 
munity was called into his chamber, and amidst their prayers the 
saint calmly breathed forth his happy soul on the 8th of July, 
in the year 903, of his age eighty-three. His body was reposed 
in this church, and honoured amongst it-s most precious relics. 
It was taken up by St. Elphegus, and exposed in a silver shrine. 
See his life written by Goscelin, monk of St. Bertin's ; Cap- 
grave ; Leland, Collect, t. 1, p. 18; John Yperius in Chron. 
St Bertini ; Molan. in Natal. Sanct. Belgii ; Heame, Pnef. in 



ia2 ST. EPHREMy P. C. [JULY 9« 

Lelandi Collect, t. 1, p. 28, t 2, p. 217 ; atid Pwef. in Thom» 
Caii Yindicias Oxon. contra Joan. Caium Cantabrig. p. 27; 
Woode Ant. Oxon. t. 1, p, 9. 



JULY IX. 
ST. EPHREM OF EDESSA, C 

DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH. 

From his works in the late Vatican edition ; also from St. Gregory of 
Nyssa, in his panegyric of St. Ephrem ; ard from Palladius, Theodo- 
ret, Sofomen, &c. See t. 1, Op. St. Ephrem. Bomie, An. 1743, or St. 
Ephrem Syri Opera Omnia Latine. Yenetiis, 1755, 2 tomis. 

A. D. 378. 

This humble deacon was the most illustrious of all the doctors, 
who, by their doctrine and writings have adorned the Syriac 
church. He was bom in the territory of Nisibis, a strong city 
on the banks of the Tigris, in Mesopotamia. His parents lived 
in the country, and earned their bread with the sweat of their 
brows, but were ennobled by the blood of martyrs in their fa- 
mily, and had themselyes both confessed Christ before the per- 
secutors under Dioclesian, or his snccessors. They consecrated 
Ephrem to God from his cradle, like another Samuel, but he 
was eighteen years old when he was baptized. Before that 
time he had committed certain faults which his enlightened 
conscience extremely exaggerated to him after his perfect con- 
version to God, and he never ceased to bewail, with floods of 
tearf, his ingratitiide towards God, in having ever oflended him 
Sozomen(l) says these sins were little sallies of anger, into 
which he had sometimes fallen with his playfellows in his child- 
hood. The saint "himself mentions in his confession(2) two 
crimes (as he styles them) of this age, which called for his 
tears during his whole life. The first was, that in play he had 
driven a neighbotir's cow among the mountains, where it hap- 
X>ened to be killed by a wild beast ; the second was » doubt 
which once came into his mind in his childhood, whether God's 

(1) Sozom. 1. 3, c. 16. (2) T. 3, p- 23. 



«Tcrr.Y 9.J 8T. ephstm, d. c. 8f5 

particular providence reached to an imraediate pnperintendi'ncv . 
over all our individual actions. This sin he exceedingly magnified 
in his contrition, though it happened before his baptism, and 
never proceeded further than a fluctuating thought from igno- 
rance in his childhood ; and in his Testament he thanks God 
for having been always preserved by his mercy since his bap- 
tism from any error in faith. Himself assures us that the 
divine goodness was pleased in a wonderful manner to discovei 
to him, after this temptation, the folly of his error, and the 
~ wretched blindness of his soul in having pretended to fathom 
the secrets of providence. 

Within a month after h^ had been assaulted by the tempta- 
tion of the aforesaid doubt^ he happened in travelling through 
the country to be benighted, and was forced to take up \m 
quarters with a shepherd who had lost in the wilderness the 
flock committed to his charge. The master of the shepherd sus- 
pected him guilty of theft, and pursuing him, found him and 
Kphrem together, and cast them both into prison, upon suspi- 
cion that they had stolen his sheep. Ephrem was extremely 
afflicted at his misfortune, and in the dungeon found seven 
other prisoners, who were all falsely accused or suspected of 
different crimes, though really guilty of others. When he had 
lain seven days in prison in great anguish of mind, an angel 
appearing to him in his sleep told him he was sent to show liim 
the justice and wisdom of Divine Providence in governing and 
directing all human events ; and that this should be manifested 
to him in the case of those prisoners who seemed to suffer in 
his company unjustly. The next day* the judge called the pri- 
soners before him, and put two of them to the torture, in order 
to compel them to confess their crimes. While others were 
tormented, Ephrem stood by the rack trembling and weeping 
for himself, under the apprehension of being every moment put 
to the question. The by-standers rallied him for his fears, and 
said, — " Ay, it is thy turn next ; it is to no purpose now to 
weep : why didst tliou not fear to commit the crime ?" How- 
ever, he was not put on the rack, but sent back to prison. The 
other prisoners, though innocent of the crimes of which they 
were first aiTaigned, were all convicted of other misdemeanors, 
and each of them received the chastisement due to his offence. 



«4 ST. EPHREM, D. C- [JULY 9- 

Ab to Ephrem, the true thief having been discovered, he was 
honourably acquitted, after seventy days' confinement. This 
event the saint relates at length in his confessions.* God wa.^ 
pleased to give him this sensible proof of the sweetness, justice, 
and tender goodness of his holy providence, which we are bound 
to adore in resignation and silence; waiting till the curtain 
shall be drawn aside, and the whole economy of his loving dis- 
pensations to his elect displayed in its true amiable light, and 
placed in its full view before our eyes in the next life. Though 
io take a view of the infinite wisdom, justice, and sanctity 
which God displayeth in all the dispensations of his providence, 
we must take into the prospect the rewards and punishments of 
the next world, and all the hidden springs of this adorable mys- 
tery of faith ; yet his divine goodness to excite our confidence 
in him, was pleased, by this revelation to his servant, to mani- 
fest in this instance his attributes justified in part, even in this 
life, of which he hath given us a most illustrious example with 
regard to holy Job. 

St. Ephrem, from the time of his baptism, which he received 
soon after this accident, began to be more deeply penetrated 
with the fear of the divine judgment, and he had always pre- 
sent to his mind the rigorous account he was to give to God of 
all his actions, the remembrance of which was to him a source 
of almost uninterrupted tears. Hoping more easily to secure 
his salvation in a state in which his thoughts would never be 
diverted from it, soon after he was baptized he took the monas- 
tic habit, and put himself under the direction of a holy abbot, 
with whose leave he chose for his abode a, little hermitage in 
the neighbourhood of the monastery. He seemed to set no 
bounds to his fervour. He lay on the bare ground, often fasted 
whole days without eating, and watched, a , great part of the 
night in prayer. It was a rule observed in all the monasteries 
of Mesopotamia and Egypt, that every religious man should 

♦ On this genuine work see Assemani, Op. t. 1, p. 119 ; ib. Proleg. c. 
1, et t. 2, p. 37. Item Biblioth. Orient, t. 1, p. 141. The disciples of 
St. Ephrem committed to writing this same history, as they had often 
heard it from his mouth. Hence we have so many relations of it. One 
formerly published by Gerard Vossius, is republished by Assemam, (t. 3, 
p. 23.) But tlie most complete account is that given us in the saint'i 
confession, extant in the new Vatican edition. 



July 9*] st. epfrem, d. c. 85 

perform his task of manual labour, of which he gave an account 
to his superior at the end of every week. The work of these 
monks was always painful, that it might be a part of their pe- 
nance ; and it was such as was compatible with private prayer, 
and a constant attention of the mind to God ; for they always 
prayed or meditated at their work ; and for this purpose, the 
first task which was enjoined a young monk was to get the 
psalter by heart. The profits of their labour, above the little 
pittance which was necessary for their mean subsistence in theii 
penitential state, were always given to the poor. St. Ephren 
made sails for ships. Of his poverty he writes thus in his Tes- 
tament : " Ephrem hath never possessed purse, stafi^, or scrip, 
or any other temporal estate ; my heart hath known no affec- 
tion for gold or silver, or any earthly goods." He was naturally 
clioleric, but so perfectly did he subdue this passion, that meek- 
ness was one of the most conspicuous virtues in his character, 
and he was usually styled The meek, or the peaceable man of 
God, He was never known to dispute or contend with any one ; 
with the most obstinate sinners he used only tears and entrea- 
ties. Once, when he had fasted several days, the brother who 
was bringing him a mess of pottage made with a few herbs for 
his meal, let fall the pot, and broke it. The saint seeing him 
in confusion, said cheerfully, " As our supper will not come to 
us, let us go to it." And .sitting down on the ground by the 
broken pot, he picked up his meal as well as he could. Humi- 
lity made the saint rejoice in the contempt of himself, and sin- 
cerely desire that all men had such a knowledge and opinion of 
his baseness and nothingness as to despise him from their hearts, 
and to look upon him most unworthy to hold any rank among 
creatures. This sincere spirit of profound humility all his 
words, actions, and writings breathed in a most affecting 
manner. 

Honoui*s and commendations served to increase the saint's 
humility. Hearing himself one day praised, he was not able to 
speak, and his whole body was covered with a violent sweat, 
caused by the inward agony and confusion of his soul at the 
consideration of the last day ; for he was seized with extreme 
fear and dread, thinking that he should then be overwhebied 
with shame, when nis bareness and hypocrisy sliouid be pro-. 



86 FT. £PRR£M, D. C. [JULT 9- 

claiiued, and made manifest before all creatures, especially those 
very persons who here commended him, and whom he had de- 
ceived by his hypocrisy. We may hence easily judge how much 
the thought of any elevation. or honour affrighted him. When 
a certain city sought to choose him bishop, he counterfeited 
himself mad. 

Compunction of heart is the sister of sincere humility and 
penance, and nothing seemed more admirable in our saint than 
this virtue. Tears seemed always ready to be called forth in 
torrents as often as he raised his heart to God, or remembered 
the sweetness of his divine love, the rigour of his judgments, 
or the spiritual miseries of our souls. ** We cannot call to mind 
his perpefuai tears, ** says St. Gregory of Nyssa, ** without 
melting into tears. To weep seemed almost as natural to him 
as it is for other men to breathe. Night and day his eyes 
seemed always swimming in tears. No one could meet him at 
any time, who did not see them trickling down his cheeks." He 
appeared always drowned in an abyss of compunction. This 
was always painted in most striking features on his counte 
nance, the sight of which w^s, even in his silence, a moving 
instruction to all who beheld him* This spirit of compunction 
gave a singular energy to all his words and writings ; it never 
forsakes him, even in panegyrics or in treating of subjects of 
spiritual joy. Where he sp^tks of the felicity of paradise or 
the sweetness of divine love in transports of overflowing hope 
and joy, he never loses sight of the motives of compunction, 
and always returns to his tears. By the continual remembrance 
of the last judgment he nourished in his soul this constant pro- 
foimd spirit of compunction. 

St. Gregory of Nyssa writes, that no one can read his dis- 
courses on the last judgment without dissolving into tears, so 
awful is the representation, and so strong and lively the image 
which he paints of tha(t dreadful day. Almost every object he 
saw called it a&esh to his mind. The spotless purity of our 
saint was the fruit of his sincere humility, and constant watch- 
fulness over himself. He says that the great St. Antony, out 
of modesty, would never wash his feet, or suffer any part of 
his body, except his face and hands, to be seen naked by any 
one* 



JOLY 9.] ST. EFHREMy D. C. 87 

St. Ephrem spent many years in the desert, collected ^'ithin 
himself, having his mind raised above all earthly things, and 
living as it were out of the flesh, and out of the world, to use 
the expression of St. Gregory Nazianzen. His zeal drew seve- 
ral severe persecutions upon him from certain tepid monks ; but 
he found a great support in the example and advice of St. Ju- 
lian, whose life he has written. He lost this comfort by the 
death of that great servant of God ; and about the same time 
died, in 338 (not 350, as Tillemont mistakes), St. James, 
bishop of Nisibis, his spiritual director and patron. Not long 
after this> God inspired St. Ephrem to leave his own country, and 
go to Edessa> there to venerate the relics of the saints, by which 
are probably meant chiefly those of the apostle St. Thomas. He 
likewise desired to enjoy the conversation of certain holy ancho- 
rets who inhabited the mountains near that city, which was 
sometimes reckoned in Mesopotamia, and sometimes in Syria. 
Under the weak reigns of the last of the Seleucidae, kings of 
Asia, it was erected into a small kingdom -by the princes called 
Abgars. As the saint was going into Edessa, a certain cour- 
teean fixed her eyes upon him, which when he perceived he 
turned away his face, and said with indignation : '* Why dost 
thou gaze upon me ?" To which she made this smart reply ; 
" Woman was formed from man ; but you ought always to keep 
your eyes cast down on the earth, out of which man was 
framed." St Ephrem, whose heart was always filled with the 
most profound sentiments of humility, was much struck and 
pleased with this reflection, and admired the providence of God 
which sends us admonitions by all sorts of means. He wrote a 
book on those words of the courtezan, which the Syrians an- 
ciently esteemed the most useful and the best of all the writings 
of this incomparable doctor ; but it is now lost It seems to 
have* contained maxims of humility. 

St. Ephrem lived at Edessa, highly honoured by all ranks 
and orders of men. Being ordained deacon of that church, he 
became an apostle of penance, which he preached with incre- 
dible zeal and fruit He from time to time returned into his 
desert, there to renew in his heart the spirit of compunction 
and prayer ; but always came out of his wilderness, inflamed 
with the ardour of a Baptist, to announce the divine truths to a 



8^ ST. EPHRKM, D. . [JULY J) 

world bnned in spiritual darkness and insensibility. The saint 
was endued with great natural talents, which he had improved 
by study and contemplation. He was a poet, and had read 
something of logic ; but had no tincture of the rest of the 
Grecian philosophy. This want of the heathenish learning and 
profane science was supplied by his good sense and uncommon 
penetration, and the diligence with which he cultivated his 
faculties by more sublime sacred studies. He learned very 
accurately the doctrine of the Catholic faith, was well versed in 
the holy 8cri]»tures, and was a perfect master of the Syriac 
tongue, in which he wrote with great elegance and propriety. 
He was possessed of an extraordinary faculty of natural elo- 
quence. Words flowed from him like a torrent, which yet 
were too slow for the impetuosity and multitude of thoughts 
with which he was overwhelmed in speaking on spiritual sub- 
jects. His conceptions were always clear, his diction pure and 
agreeable. He spoke with admirable perspicuity, copiousness, 
and sententiousness, in an easy, unaflfected style ; and with so 
much sweetness, so pathetic a vehemence, so natural an ac- 
cent, and so strong emotions of his own heart, that his words 
seemed to carry with them an irresistible power. His writings 
derive great strength from the genius and natural bold tropes 
of the Oriental languages applied by so great a master, and 
have a graceful beauty and force which no translation can at- 
tain ; though his works are only impetuous effusions of an over- 
flowing heart, not studied compositions. What recommends 
them beyond all other advantages of eloquence, is, they are 
all the language of the heart, and a heart penetrated with the 
most perfect sentiments of divine love, confidence, compunc- 
tion, humility, and all other virtues. They present his ardent, 
humble, and meek soul such as it was, and show how ardently he 
was occupied only on the great truths of salvation ; how much 
he humbled himself without intermission, under the almighty 
hand of God, infinite in sanctity and terrible in his justice ; 
with what profound awe he trembled in the constant attention 
to his adorable presence, and at the remembrance of his dread- 
ful judgment, and with what fervour he both preached nnd 
practised the most austere penance, labouring continually with 
all his strength '* to prepare himself a treasure for the last 



July 9-3 st. ephrem, d. c 89 

hour," as he expresses himself. His words strongly imprint 
upon the souls of others those sentiments with which he was 
penetrated : they carry light and conviction ; they never fail to 
strike, and pierce to the very bottom of the soul. Nor is tho 
fire which they kindle in the breast a passing warmth, but a 
flame which devours and destroys aU earthly affections, trans- 
forms the soul into itself, and continues without abating, the 
lasting force' of its activity.* " Who that is proud," says St. 
Gregory of Nyssa, " would not become the humblest of men b^ 
reading his discourse on humility ? Who would not be inflamed 
with a divine fire by reading his treatise on charity ? Who 
would not wish to be chaste in heart and spirit, by reading the 
praises he has given to virginity ?" 

The saint, though most austere to himself, was discreet il 
the direction of others, and often repeated this advice, that it 
is a dangerous stratagem of the enemy to induce fervent con- 
verts to embrace in the beginning excessive mortifications.(l) 
Wherefore it behoves them not to undertake without prudent 
counsel any extraordinary practices of penance ; but always such 
in which they will be able to persevere with constancy and 
cheerfulness. Who ever laid on a child a burden of a hundred 
pounds weight, under which he is sure to fall ? 

St. Ephrem brought many idolaters to the faith, and con- 
verted great numbers of Arians, Sabellians, and other here- 
tics. Saint Jerom commends a book which he wrote against 
the Macedonians, to prove the divinity of the Holy Ghost 
He established the perfect efficacy of penance against the No- 
vations, who, though the boldest and most insolent of men, 
seemed like children without strength before this experienced 
champion, as St. Gregory of Nyssa assures us. Not less glo- 
rious were his triumphs over the Millenarians, Marcionites 
Manichees, and the disciples of the impious Bardesanes, wha 
denied the resurrection of the flesh, and had in the foregoing 
century spread his errors at Edessa, by songs which the people 
learned to sing. St Ephrem, to minister a proper antidote 

(1) Serm. Ascetic. I, p. 4. 
* See Appendix oa St. Ephrem's "Works, at tU^ end of the lifOc 



90 ST. EFHREM, 1>. C. ^ JCLY 9* 

against thi^ poison, composed elegant Catholic songs and poems 
which he taught the inhabitants both of the citj and countiy 
with great spiritual advantage. Apollinaris began openlj to 
broach im hunsysL little before the year 376, denying in Christ 
a human soul^ which he pretended ihat the divine person sup- 
plied in the humanity : whence it would have followed that he 
WM not truly man, but only assumed a human body, not the 
complete human nature. St. Ephrem was then very old, but 
he opposed this new monster with great vigour. Several here- 
sies he crushed in their birth, and he suffered much from the 
fury of the Arians under Constantius, and of the Heathens un- 
der Julian, but in both these persecutions reaped glorious lau- 
rels and trophies. 

It was by a divine admonition, as himself assures U8,(l) that 
about the year 372, he undertook a long journey to pay a visit 
to BasiL Being arrived at Csesarea, he went to the great 
church, where he found the holy bishop preaching. After the 
sermon, St. Basil sent for him, and asked him by an interpre- 
ter, if he was not Ephrem, the servant of Christ.* *'I am 
that Ephrem," said he, " who have wandered astray from the 
j>ath of heaven.'' Then melting into tears, and raising his 
voice, he cried out: '*0, my father, have pity on a sinful 
wretch, and lead me into the narrow path." St. Basil gave 
him many rules of holy life, and after long spiritual conferences 
dismissed him with gi-eat esteem, having iirst ordained his com- 
panion priest. St. Ephrem himself never would consent to be 
promoted to the sacerdotal dignity, of which he expresses the 
greatest dread and apprehension, in his sermon on the priest- 
hood.(2) Being returned to Edessa, he retired to a little 8oli« 

(1) In encomio Basiiy, t. 2. (2) T. 4, b. I, ed. Vaticanae. 

* From his conversing with St. Basil by an interpreter it is clear that 
St. Ephrem never understood the Greek langaage. The old riciout 
translation of the life of St. Basil, under the name of St. Amphilochius, 
pretends that St. Basil obtained for him miraculouslj the knowledge of 
the Greek tongue, and ordained him priest. But this is a double mis. 
take, though the latter was admitted \>y Baillet. St. Jerom, Falladius, 
and other ancients always style him deacon, never priest. Nor does 
Fseudo Amphilochius say, that St. Basil raised St. £phrem, but only his 
disciple and companion to the priesthood, as the new translation of thi« 
piece, and an attentive inspection of the original text demonstrate. 



JtTLY 9.] ST. EFIUtEMy D. C. 91 

tarj cell, where he prepared himself for his last passage, and 
composed the latter part of his works. For, Dot content to la- 
bour for the advantage of one age, or one people, he studied to 
promote that of all mankind, and all times to come. The pub- 
lic distress under a great famine called him a^sm. out of his re< 
tirement, in order to serve, and pxoeure relief for the poor. Hi 
engaged the rich freely to open their coffers, placed beds for 
the sick in all the public porticos, visited them every day, and 
served them with his own hands. The public calamity being 
over, he hastened back to his solitude, where he shortly aftei 
took ill of a fever. He wrote about that time his seventy-sii 
Paraeneses, or moving exhortations to penance, consisting in ia 
great measure of most affective prayers ; several of which are 
used by the Syrians in their church office. His confidence in 
the precious fruits of the holy sacrament of the altar raised hia 
hope, and inflamed his love, especially in his passage to eter- 
nity. Thus he expresses himself :(1) "Entering upon so long 
and dangerous a journey, I have my viaticum, even Thee, O 
Son of God. In my extreme spiritual hunger, I will feed on 
thee, the repairer of mankind. So it shall be tliat no fire will 
dare to approach me ; for it will not be able to bear the sweet 
saving odour of thy body and blood.** The circumstances of 
our saint*s death are edifying, and deserve our notice ; for no** 
thing more strongly affects our heart, or makes on i.t a more 
sensible impression than the behaviour and words of great mcu 
in their last moments. 

St. Ephrem was always fllled with grief, indignation, and 
confusion when he perceived others to treat him as a saint, or 
to express any regard or esteem for him. In his last sickness 
he laid this strict injunction on his disciples and friends :(2f 
" Sing no funeral hymns at Ephrem's burial ; suffer no enco- 
miastic oration. Wrap not my carcase in any costly shroud 
erect no monument to my memory. Allow me only the por- 
tion and place of a pilgrim ; for I am a pilgrim and a strauger 
as all my fathers were on earth." Seeing that several persons 
had prepared rich shrouds for his interment, he was much 
afflicted, and he charged all those who had such a design to 

C4) Necrosima, can. 81, p. 355, t. 6. 

(2) St. Eplirem in Testam. pp. 286, 3d5, and St. Greg. Kjrgs. p. 12. 



92 ST. EPHHEM, D. C. [JuLY 9- 

drop it, and give the money to the poor, which he in particular 
obliged a rich nobleman, who had bought a most sumptnouci 
shroud for that purpose, to do. St. Ephrem, as long as he was 
able to speak, continued to exhort all men to the fervent pur- 
suit of virtue, as his last words sufficiently show, says St. Gre- 
gory of Nyssa, meaning the saint's testament, which is still ex- 
tant genuine, and the same that was qroted by St. Gregory, 
Sozomen, &c. In it he says : " I fephrem die. Be it known 
to you all that I write this testament to conjure you always to 
remember me in your prayers after my decease."(l) This he 
often repeats. He protests that he had always lived in the true 
faith, to which he exhorts all most firmly to adhere. Deplor- 
ing and confessing aloud the vanity and sinfulness of his life, 
he adjures all present that no one would suflfer his sinful dust 
to be laid under the altar, and that no one would take any of 
his rags for relics, nor show him any honour, for he was a sin- 
ner, and the last of creatures. ** But," says he, " throw m^ 
body hastily on your shoulders, and cast me into my grave, as 
the abomination of the universe. Let no one praise me ; for I 
am full of confusion, and the very abstract of baseness. To 
show what I am, rather spit upon me, an^ cover my body with 
phlegm. Did you smell the stench of my actions, you would 
Hy from me, and leave me imburied, not being able to bear the 
horrible corruption of my sins." He forbids any torches or per-- 
fumes, ordering his corpse to be thrown into the common bu- 
rying-place among poor strangers. He expresses most feeling 
sentiments of compunction, and gives his blessing to his disci- 
ples, with a prediction of divine mercy in their favour ; but ex- 
cepts two among them, Aruad and Paulonas, both persons 
famed for eloquence ; yet he foresaw that they would after- 
wards apostatize from the Catholic faith. The whole city was 
assembled before the saint's door, every one being bathed in 
tears ; and all strove to get as near to him as possible, and Vt 
listen to his last instructions. A lady of great quality, named 
Lamprotata, falling at his feet, begged his leave to buy a coffin 
for his interment ; to which he assented, on condition thai it 
should be a very mean one, and that the lady would promise to 
rcnoance all vanities in • spirit of penance, and never rgain to 

CI) Tesum. t 2« p. 230^ te. 



JUI.Y 9.] ST. EPHBEM, D. C. 93 

be carried on the shoulders of men, or in a chair ; all which she 
cheerfully engaged herself to perform. The saint having 
ceased to speak, continued in silent prayer till he calmly gave 
up his soul to God. He died in a very advanced age about the 
year 378. His festival was kept at Edessa immediately after 
his death. On it St. Gregory of Nyssa soon after spoke his 
panegyric, at the request of one Ephrem, who having been 
taken captive by the Ismaelites, had recommended himself to 
this saint his patron, and had been wonderfully deliveji^ed from 
his chains and from many dangers. St Gregory closes his dis- 
course with this address to the saint : "You are now assisting 
at the divine altar, and before the Prince of life, with the an- 
gels, praising the most holy Trinity ; remember us all, and ob- 
tain for us the pardon of our sins." The true martyrology of 
Bede calls the 9th of July the day of his deposition ; which 
agrees with Palladius, who places his death in harvest-time, 
though the Latins have long kept his festival on the 1st of Fe- 
bruary, and the Greeks on the 28th of January. His perpe- 
tual tears, far from disfiguring his face, made it appear more 
serene and beautiful, and his very aspect raised the veneration 
of all who beheld him. The Greeks paint him very tall, bent 
with old age, of a sweet and beautiful countenance, with his 
eyes swimming in tears, and the venerable marks of sanctity in 
his looks and habit. 

Saint Austin says, that Adam in paradise praised God, and 
did not sigh ; but in our present state, a principal function of 
our prayer consists in sighs and compunction. Divine love, as 
St. Gregory observes,(l) our banishment from God, our dan- 
gers, our past sins, our daily offences, and the weight of our 
own spiritual miseries, and those of the whole world call upon 
us continually to weep, at least spiritually, and in the desire of 
our heart, if we cannot always with our eyes. Every object 
round about us suggests many motives to excite our tears. We 
ought to mingle them even with our hymns of praise and love. 
Can we make an act of divine love without being pierced with 
bitter grief and contrition, reflecting that we have been so base 
and ungrateful as to have offended our infinitely good God ? 
Can we presume without trembling to sing his praises with our 

voim VII. (I) Greg M. Moral. 1. 23, c. 21, q 



94 ST. EPHREM, D. C [JuLT 9- 

impure affections, or to pronounce his adorable name with our 
defiled lips ? And do we not first endeavour, by tears of com- 
punction, to wash away the stains of our souls, begging to be 
sprinkled and cleansed by hyssop, dipped not in the blood of 
sheep or goats, but in the blood of the spotless Lamb, who died 
to take away the sins of the world ? If the most innocent 
tjnaskg the saints weep continually from motives of holy love, 
how much more ought the sinner to mourn I " The voice of 
the turtle hath been heard in our land."(l) J£ the turtle, the 
emblem of innocence and fidelity, make its delight to mourn 
solitary in this desert, what ought not the unfaithful soul to do ? 
The penitent sinner, instead of the sighs of the turtle, ought 
to pour forth his grief in loud groans, imitating the doleful 
cries of the ostrich, and in torrents of tears, by which the deep- 
est sorrow for having offended so good a God, forces his broken 
heart to give it vent. 



ON THE WRITINGS OF ST. EPHREM. 

Thb first Yolume of the Vatican edition of this father's works begins 
with his sermon On Virtues and Vices. He expresses in it a surprise to 
see the full seek food from him who was empty, and sajs he is con. 
founded to speak, seeing every word would accuse and condemn himself. 
However, trembUng, he recommends to his hearers the fear of God ; 
charity, by which we are meek, patient, tender to all, desirous to serve, 
and give to all ; hope, and longanimity, by which we bear all ; patience, 
mee&ess, sweetness to all; inviolable love of truth in the smalW 
things, obedience, temperance, &c. and speaks against all the contrary 
vices, envy, detraction, Ac. 

His two Confessions or Reprehensions of himself are only effusions of 
his heart in these dispositions. The first he begins as follows : ** Have 
pity on me, all ye that have bowels of compassion." Then he earnestly 
begs their prayers that he may find mercy with God, though he was 
from his infancy an useless abandoned vessel. He laments his spiritual 
miseries in the most moving words, declaring that he trembles lest, as 
flames from heaven devoured him who presumed to offer profane fire on 
the altar, so he should meet with the same judgment for appearing be- 
fore Grod in prayer without having the fire of his divine love in his heart. 
He invites all men to weep and pray for him, making a public confession 
of the failings which his pure lights discovered in his afifections ; for in 
these, notwithstanding his extraordinary progress in the contrary vir- 
tues, he seemed to himself to discern covetousness, jealousy, and sloth, 
though he appeared of all men the most remote from the very shadow of 
those vices ; and by tears of compunction he studied more and more to 

(1) Cant. U. 12. 



July 9.] t ephrj:m, d. c {)& 

purify his heart, that God might rouchsafe perfectly to reign in it. The 
second part of this work is a bitter accusation of his pride ; which sin, 
as he adds, destroys even the gifts of Grod in a soul, blasts all her virtues, 
and renders them a most filthy abomination ; for all our virtues will be 
tried at the last day by a fire which onlv humility can stand. He laments 
how pride infects the whole world ; that some, by a strange phrenzy, 
seek to gratify it in earthly fooleries, and the most silly vanities, on 
which the opinion of madmen has stamped a pretended dignity and 
imaginary value. He laments bitterly, that even spiritual- men are in 
danger of sinning, by taking pride in virtue itself, though this be the 
pure gift of God ; and when by his mercy we are enriched with it, we 
are, nevertheless, base and unprofitable servants. 

In his second Reprehension of himself, after having elegantly demon- 
strated a particular providence inspecting and governing the minutest 
affairs and circumstances, he grievously accuses himself of having enter- 
tained a doubt of it in his youth, before his conversion to God. He oon. 
demns himself as guilty of vain-gloiy, sloth, lukewarmness, immortifi. 
cation, irreverence in thie church, talkativeness, contentiousness, and 
other sins. He fears lest his repentance should be like that of Esau, and 
begs the pity and prayers of all men for an infamous blind leper. He 
weeps to see that some men had conceived an esteem for him to whom 
none was due ; and he cries out to them — ** Take off my false covering, 
and you will see in me nothing but worms, stench, and filth : remove the 
cloak of hjrpocrisy, and you will find me an hideous and nauseous se- 
pulchre.** He compares himself to the Pharisees, as wearing only the 
habit of the prophets and saints, to his heavier condemnation ; for vice, 
covered with a mask of virtue, is always more odious and detestable, 
Tn another Confession, (t. 8, p. 4S9,) after accusing himself of sloth, 
•ride, uncharitableness, and other sins, he most movingly entreats all 
men to weep for him ; wishing they could see the extreme miseries of 
his heart, which could not fail most powerfully to excite their com- 
passion, though they could not be able to bear the hideous sight of the 
load of his monstrous iniquities. 

His treatise On the Passions is of the same nature, a lamentation that 
from his infancy he had been a contemner of grace, and slothful to vir- 
tue, strengthened daily his passions, and groaned in the midst of snares 
which made him fear to live lest he should go on relapsing into sloth. 

He has left us many tracts on Compunction, which, indeed, ail his 
writings breathe. In the first which bears this title, he invites all, rich 
and poor, old and young, to join him in weeping, to purchase eternal 
life, and to be delivered from everlasting death : by weeping and crying 
to see with the blind man in the gospel, the soul wiU be enlightened to 
see her miseries. God, the angels, all heaven expect and invite us ear. 
nestly to these tears : God*s terrible judgment is at hand ; which he de- 
scribes, and then adds, to prevent its justice we must weep not one day 
.'mly, but all the days of our life, as David did, in affliction, continual 
prayer, austerities, and alms. The narrow grate does not admit others ; 
the Judge will exclude those who sought their joy on earth and pampered 
t*»eir flesh. Then it will be too late to trim our lamps, or seek for the 
oil of good works ; then no more poor will stand at any door for us to 
redeem our sins by alms. He laments our spiritual miseries, especially 
Ills sins and sloth continued all his life now to tbp eleventii hour. He 
awakes his soul by the short time that remains, atid that uncertain too. 

In his second he reUtes, that going out of Edessa early one morning, 
accomp&Dicd %rith t^ro brethren, and beholding the heavens beautifoll/ 



96 ST. EPHREM, D. C. \_JULY 9- 

spangled with bright stars, he eaid to himself— ''If the lustre of these 
luminaries be so dazzling, how will the saints shine when Christ shall 
come in glory 1 But suddenly the thought of that terrible day struck 
my mind, and I trembled in all my joints, and was seized with con-ml. 
sions, and in an agony of fear, sighing and overwhelmed with a flood of 
tears, I cried out in bitter anguish of mind: How shall I be then 
found ! How shall I stand before that tribunal ! A monster infected 
with pride among the humble and the perfect, a goat among the sheep, 
and a barren tree without fruit. The martyrs will show their torments, 
and the monks their virtues ; but thou, alas I O sinful, vain, and arro- 
gant soul, wilt only bear thy sloth and negligence." His two companions, 
moved by the excess of his tears, Wiept with him. 

In his Discourse, that we ought never to laugh with a worldly joy, but 
to always weep, he enforces the obligation of perpetual compunction and 
tears. 

In his ascetic Sermon, he says grief and zeal compel him to speak, but 
his unworthiness and his sins persuade him to be silent, his eyes delight 
only in tears to bewail night and day in floods the wounds of his soul, 
and above all that pride which conceals them from him. He laments 
tepidity and love of earthly things should be found among the monks, 
and that some interrupt their mortiflcations, weeping one day and 
laughing the next, lying one night on the ground, the next on a soft bed, 
whereas all our life ought to be a course of penance ; he extols the hu- 
mility and constant mortiflcation of the ancient and all true monks, like 
shining diamonds in the world. The rest of this long discourse is a vehe- 
ment exhortation of the monks to fervour and zeal, this life being a time 
of traffic, and very short, and a nothing ; the recompense inmiense, and 
the rigour of Grod's justice terrible to aU. He pronounces woes to him- 
self in the confusion he expected in the last day before all who esteemed 
him here. Begs earnestly all to pray for him. One of the principal means 
to preserve this fervour, is a strict examen every night and morning. A 
trader casts up every day his losses and gains, and is solicitous to repair 
any losses ; so do you, says he, every morning and night make up your 
accounts careAilly; examine yourself: Have I to-day spoke any idle 
words, despised any, &c. ? Have I this night watched, prayed, &c. ? 
He advises not to undertake too much in austerities, but such as the soul 
will not relax in, than which nothing is more pernicious. 

His parenetic Sermon is also addressed to young monks, whom he ad- 
vises to tlie continual presence of God in their minds most earnestly 
under temptations. Against doth he observes, this succeeding fervour 
by fits makes a life one chain of risings and falling again ; building by- 
mortification, and destroying again by relaxing. He bids them have this 
inscription in the beginning of their book : Sloth banished for ever and 
ever from my soul. 

His two sermons on the Fathers deceased, are also to monks, showing 
and lamenting their tepidity by the fervour of their fathers in the de- 
sorts. His Hypomnisticon is an exhortatory epistle to the same. 

His treatise on Virtue is to a novice ; he tells him obedience has no 
merit unless in hard and harsh things, for even wild beasts grow tame by 
mild treatment. 

Next follows his book in Imitation of Proverbs, in definitions and 
Ftrong sentences on all virtues, in which he teaches tears in prayer are 
the beginning of a good life ; vain-glory is like a worm in a tree. He 
speaks much on humility, presumption, charity, tears out of the desire of 
/Ptcrual happiness, and weeps to consider his own wretchedness and poverty. 



July 9.] 5T. ephrem, d. c 97 

His treatise for the Correction of those who lived « ickedly, is full of 
zeal, humility, and an extraoraivary contempt of himself, and spirit of 
compunction. 

That on Penance is a pathetic <?xliorlation to sinners to return by the 
mercy of God, who expects tliem before the dawning of the day of life 
which is coming on ; by the comfort which the angels will receive, and 
from the frightful trial at the last day, against which he prays for 
himself. 

His discourse On the Fear of Souls, is a lamentation and prayer for 
himself at the sight of the heavens, still in stronger expressions and 
tears. 

His sermon On the Second Coming of Christ, shows the joy of the 
blessed, and exaggerates the severity of that trial from the immensity oi 
Grod's benefits to us. 

In his Tetrasyllabus he explains how the devil vanquished by the fer- 
vent, always says, I will then go to my friends, the slothful, where I 
shall have no labour, nor want stratagems. I have but to fetter them m 
the chains with which they are pleased, and I shall have them always 
willing subjects. He exhorts all therefore to constant fervour. In 
another place he exhorts all continually to repeat to themselves against 
sloth : ** Yet a little of thy journey remains and thou wilt arrive at thy 
place of rest. Then take liy rest not now on the road." 

In his book on those works, Attende Tibi, to a monk, he presses the 
precept of being always fervent, never relaxing, in every virtue, espe- 
cially in purity ; and adds the example of St. Antony, who, as St. 
Athanasius relates, notwithstanding his great mortifications, which he 
never relaxed from Ms youth to his old age, would never bathe or so 
much as wash his feet, or even suffer any part of his body to be seen, ex. 
ccpt his face and hands, till after lus death. 

He has left us an excellent long prayer for a soul to say in time of any 
temptation ; another for grace and pardon of sins. 

A novice among the monks often begged of St. Ephreni some direction. 
The saint extols his zeal and humility in desiring advice from a sinner, 
whose intolerable stench infects all his works. His first lesson to him is 
that he always remember the presence of God, and avoid all unnecessary 
words. He recommends then to him, in ninety-six lessons, perfect obe- 
dience, abstinence, silence, solitude, which frees a man from three dan- 
gers, viz. of the eyes, ears, and tongue ; never to have so much compas- 
sion for any novice as to offend God, and so perish with him ; if he be 
tepid, it is better he should perish alone than you also by condescension ; 
never to speak to a superior in favour of an expelled brother, without- 
most evident proofs of his perfect conversion ; for a little spark falling 
into a bam, easily destroys all the labours of the whole year : to avoid 
frequent long conversations with any young man about piety or other 
things, for fear of fond love ; never to desire anything great or public, 
for God's honour, but rather to love to be hid and unknown ; many in 
dens and deserts were the greatest saints, but without humility the most 
glorious virtues and the greatest actions are lost ; never to seek the care 
of souls, but to employ in it the utmost diligence, if it be laid upon him : 
always to walk in the narrow way of compunction and mourning. His 
other lessons conduce to humility and other virtues. 

His fifty-five Beatitudes comprise the happiness of all virtues, as of ever 
glorifying God, which is to be as the cherubim and seraphim. He closes 
them bursting into tears at the reflection how far he is from any of them 
by Lis sloth under a holy garb, and how distant from the holy servants of 



9$ ST. SPH&EMy D. C. [JULT 9 

God, who perterered fome in ndcdoth and chains, otiiem on pillars,, 
others in enclosure and fasting, others in obedience, &e. He adds twenty 
other beatitudes. 

His book of one hundred chapters on humilily, consists chieflj of fthort 
examples ; as, a certain novice always kept silence. Some said to him. 
He is silent because he knows not how to speak. Others said. No, but 
it ii because he has a deril. He, hearing all this, gave no answer, but 
glorified God in his heart. 

In the second volume we have the life of St. Abraham ; a long pane, 
gjric on the Patriarch Joseph ; a sermon on the Transfiguration ; one on 
the Ijast Judgment, and on the necessity and advantage of spending this 
life in tears ; a treatise of ninety chapters on the right way of living ; 
fifty parflBneses or exhortations to the monks, on obedience, humility, 
Ac, ; a most pathetic sermon on the second coming of Christ, in which he 
expresses himself as follows: "Beloved of Christ, lend a favourable at. 

tenUon to what I am going to say on the dreadful coming of our Lord 

Kemembering that hour, I tremble with an excess of fear ; for who can 
relate those horrible things ? what tongue can express them ? When the 
King of kings, arising from his throne of glory, shall descend, and sit 
the just judge, calling to an account all the inhabitants of the earth. — 
At this thought I am ready to swoon away: my limbs quake for fear, my 
eyes swim in tears, my voice fails, my Ups shrink, my tongue falters, 
and my thoughts are wrapt up in silence. I am obliged to denounce these 
things to you ; yet fear will not suffer me to speak. A loud thunder now 
affrights us ; how then shall we stand at the sound of the last trumpet, 
louder than any thunder, summoning the dead to rise I Then the bones 
of aU men in the bowels of the earth, hearing this voice, shall suddenly 
run, and seek out their joints ; and, in the twinkling of an eye, we 
shall see all men risen and assembled to judgment. The great King shall 
command, and instantly the earth quaking, and the troubled sea shall 
give up the dead which they possess, whether devoured by fish, beasts, 
or fowl. All hi a moment shadl appear present, and not a hair will be 
wanting.** He goes on describing the frightful fire consuming all things 
on the earth ; the angels separating the sheep and the goats ; the stan. 
dard of the great King, that cross on which he was nailed, shining bright, 
and borne Wore him ; men standing to meet this tremendous majesty, 
revolving their own deeds ; the just with joy, the wicked^worse than 
dead witii fear; the angels and cherulnm appearing, singing?. Holy, Holy, 
Holy ; the heavens opened, and the King of kings revealed in such incom- 
parable glory, that the heavens and the earth will fly from before his face. 
** Who then/* si^^ he, ** can stand ? He places before our eyes the books 
opened, and all our actions, thoughts, and words, called to an account." 
He then cries out: '* What tears ought we not to shed night and day 
without intermission, for that terrible appearance l** Here the venerable 
old man was no longer able to break through his sighs and tears, and 
stood silent. The auditory cried out — ** Tdl us what more terrible things 
will follow,** He answered, ** Then aU mankind wiU stand with eyes cast 
down, between lifo and death, heavoi and damnation, be£(»e the tribu- 
nal i and all degrees of men shall be called to a ligoroos examination 

Woe to me! I desire to tdl you what tilings will follow, tiut my Toice 
(kils me through foar, and I am lost in oonAision and anxiety; the very 
rehearsaloftlMse things is most dreadftxl*** The andieiioe repeated again: 
''tyftUusthereel, for God'is takft, for our advantage and aatvatioQ.'' He 
therefoie proceeded. *' Then, beloved of Christ, diall he required m all 
J^hrtHlana the seal <rf ba p t W Qai» entire foith, and tiMi heaiilifal loivncia. 



JCLY 9.] ST. EPHREM, D. C. 99 

tion which they made before witnesses, saying, I renounce Satan, and all 
his works ; not one, or two, or five, but all the works of the devil. In 
that hour this renunciation will be demanded of us, and happy is he who 
shall have kept it fidthf ally as he promised. " Here, he stopping in tears, 
they cried again : *' Tell us also what follows this." He answered : ** I 
will tell you in my grief, I will speak through my sighs and tears ; these 
things cannot be related without tears, for they are extremely dreadful." 
The people entreated again : ** O servant of God, we beseedi you to in- 
struct us fully.** The holy man, again striking his breast, and weeping 
more bitterly, said : ** O my brethren, beloved of Christ, how sorrow- 
ful, and how frightful things do you desire to hear I O terrible hour I 
Woe to me, woe to me I Who wiU dare to relate, or who will bear to 
hear this last and horrible rehearsal ; all you who have tears, sigh with 
me ! and you who have not, hear what will befal you ; and let us not 
neglect our salvation. Then shall they be separated, without hopes of 
ever returning to each other again, bishops from fellow-bishops, priests 
from fellow-priests, deacons from fellow-deacons, subdeacons and lectors 
from their fdlows ; those who were kings as the basest slaves ; children 
from parents ; friends from kindred and intimates. Then princes, phi- 
losophers, wise men of the world, seeing themselves thus parted, shall 
cry out to the saints with bitter tears : '* Farewell eternally, saints and 
servants of God ; fSEirewell parents, children, relations, and friends ; fkre- 
weU prophets, apostles, and martyrs ; fkrewell Lady Mother of God ; 
you prayed much for us that we might be saved, but we would not. — 
Farewell life-giving cross ; farewell paradise of delights, kingdom with- 
out end, the heavenly Jercutalem. Farewell ye all ; we shall never more 
behold one of you, hastening to our torment without end or rest," &c. 

A Sermon on fraternal C^urity, and on the Last Judgment, in which 
his tears again hindered him fh>m pursuing his subject. Nothing can be 
more terrifying or more moving than these discourses, or than the next 
on Antichrist, or that after on the Cross, or that of Interrogations — 
There follow his Testament, his Sermon on the Cross and on Charity, in 
which he salutes and honours that holy instrument of our redemption in 
the strongest words and highest epithets, which, as he says, all nations 
adore, and which saving sign we mark on our doors, foreheads, eyes, 
mouths, breast, and our whole body. His Sermon against heretics on the 
precious margarite, to prove the Virgin Mary mother of God ; that on 
the vice of the tongue ; his Panegyric on St. Basil ; his Sermon on the 
Sinful Woman in the gospel ; on the Forty Mart3rrs ; on Abraham and 
Isaac ; on Daniel and the three children. Sermons on the eight capital 
bad thoughts ; gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger, sadness, sloth, vain- 
glory, and pride; on peifection, on patience and suffering; and many small 
tracts to monks. One contains a relation of a holy virgin in a monastery of 
three himdred, who was never seen eating, but worked washing the dishes 
and cleaning vhe scullery, feigning herself a fool, and bearing blows and all 
insults without murmuring or answering a word ; called by derision, Salla 
or Sallop. St. Pityrumus, an anchoret, was admonished by an angel to go 
and see in her one who surpassed him and the others in virtue : having seen 
all the nuns he found not her, she being left behind in the kitchen. At his 
desire, which all laughed at, she was brought out. The anchoret imme« 
diately fell at her feet, crying, * * Blessme, Amma, " (t . e. spiritual mother. ) 
She also fell at his feet. The nuns said to him, *' Don't incur such a dis. 
grace ; this is Salla." " No, (said he,") you are all Salse." Upon this 
all honoured her, and one confessed, that she had thrown on her wash- 
ings of the dishes ; another had struck her ; another had thrust mustard 



100 ST. EPBREM, D. C. [JuLY 9L 

up her nostrils, &c. She pot bearing esteem, retired thence unknown^ 
and was never more heard of. 

The third rolume contains many Sermons and Discourses, chiefly oa 
the judgments of God and the last day ; on penance, compunction 
prayer, charity, and other virtues ; and on vices and passions. Also thr^ 
life of St. Julian the anchoret. Pious poems and several panegyrics of 
and prayers to the Blessed Virgin, whose virginity and dignity of mother 
of God he clearly asserts. 

The fourth volume consists of his Commentaries on the five books of 
Moses, on Joshua, Judges, and the four books of Kings. St. Gregory 
of Nyssa says, he studied and meditated assiduously on the holy scrip, 
tures, and expounded them all from the first book of Genesis to the last 
in the New Testament, with an extraordinary Ught, with which the Holy 
Ghost filled him. Many other Oriental writers testify the same. His 
exposition is very literal, full, and learned; nothing escapes him in them. 

The fifth volume gives us his Commentaries on Job and on all the pro- 
phets. Eleven sermons on several passages of holy scripture, in which 
he ^chorts principally to avoid all occasions of sin, and to perpetual tears 
and penance. Thirteen sermons on the birth of Christ ; and fifty-six 
polemical sermons against heresies, viz. of the Marcionitesy Manicheans, 
especially their judiciary astrology ; of the Novatians, Messalians, &c. 
His zeal was moved seeing these errors spread in his country. He em- 
ploys the Church's authority, scriptures, and reasons to confute them. 

The oxth volume gives us ninety other pcdemical Discourses against 
the Arlan and Eunomian heretics or Searchers, as he calls them, because 
they attempted to penetrate the divine mysteries, and the incomprehen- 
sible nature pf God himself. They are equally solid and strong ; not dry, 
as most writings of controvery, but full of unction and of the greatest 
sentiments of devotion, and an inexpressible ardour to ever love and 
praise our great God and Redeemer. His sermon against the Jews is n& 
less remarkable. 

His Necrosima or eighty-five funeral canons> were wrote on Death and 
God's judgments, which he had always before his eyes. He teaches evi- 
dently in t^em the use of ecclesiastical funeral rites and prayers at burials; 
that tiie souls of the departed immediately are judged by a particular 
judgment ; the good immediately admitted to the enjoyment of God ; 
those who die without having expiated venial sin, sufier in the fiames of 
purgatery till it be satisfied for, but are relieved by the sacrifices, prayers, 
and other pious works of the faithful on earth. Of these fifty-four are 
short funeral discourses on the death of bishops, monks, and persons of 
all conditions. They are full of his extreme fear of the divine judgment, 
and a great contempt of the vanity of the world. He says in the eighty- 
first canon, '* Entering on so long and dangerous a journey, I have my 
viaticum, thee, O Son of God ; when hungry, I will eat ttiee, repairer 
of mankind ; so it shall be, that no fire will dare approach my members, 
for it will not be able to bear the sweet saving odour of thy body and 
blood," &c. He uses the same motive of confidence of immortality, from 
being fed with the body and blood of Christ, and employs that endearing 
divine grace to move God to have mercy on him. He repeats the same 
prayer in his thirteenth Parasnesis. Nothing can be clearer than the 
texts collected by Ceillier (t. 8, p. 101,)fromthe writings of St, Ephrem, 
in favour of the real presence of the sacred body of Christ in the holy 
eucharist. See on them the judicious remarks of an able critic, Mem. de 
Trev. Jan. 1756, p. 55. 

Here follow fc ur sermons on Freewill ; also seventy-six moving Parae- 



July 9.] st. e1>hrem, d. c. loi 

neses or exhortations to penance. In the forty-second he tells us, that 
when he lay down to take a little repose in the night, he reflected on 
the excessive and boundless love of God, and instantly rose again to pay 
him the tribute of the most fervent praise and thanks he was able. ** But 
being deterred," says he, "by the remembrance of my sins, I began to 
melt into tears, and should have been disturbed beyond my strength, had 
not the thief, the publican, the sinful woman, the Canaanean, the Samari- 
tan, and other examples of mercy, given me comfort and courage. He says 
that at other times, when he was going to fall asleep, the remembrance 
of his sins banished all thoughts of giving rest to his wearied body, and 
made sleep yield to sighs, groans, and floods of tears, to which he invited 
himself by the example of the penitent David, washing his bed with 
briny torrents ; for the sUence of night is the most proper season for our 
tears. It appears he composed this work, at least part, a little before his 
death; for in the forty-third Paraenesis he writes: **I Ephrem am now 
dying, I write my last will and testament to all lovers of truth, who 
shall rise up after me. Persevere night and day in prayer. The hus- 
bandman reapeth a great crop by assiduous labour ; so will you, if you 
never interrupt your devotion. Pray without ceasing." 

His book in fifteen elegant discourses on the Terrestrial Paradise, ex- 
plaining its history in Genesis, and comforting himself with the name 
and happiness of the good thief on the cross, makes a transition to the 
heavenly Paradise, on the felicity of which he speaks with incredible joy 
and pleasure. In his eighth discourse he teaches that the soul cannot per. 
fectly see God before the resurrection; but means by the perfectly, com- 
plete enjoyment, for he is very express, (loc. cit. supra,) that the 
blessed behold God immediately on their death ; as Muratori demon- 
strates against Burnet, in his dissertation on Paradise, c. 2. 

Eighteen very devout sermons on divers subjects close his works; on 
Christ's Nativity and Resurrection ; on Prayer, on Humility, which he 
teaches is the weax>on our Redeemer conquered hell by, and has put into 
our hands as our principal and only armour against our spiritual enemies. 

The works of this father demonstrate the uniformity in fiiith of the 
Syriac Church in the fourth century, with that of the universal church 
of all ages. 

Several of St. Ephrem*s works were translated into Latin, and pub- 
lished at Rome in 1589, by Gerard Vossius or Volkens, provost of Ton- 
gres. A Greek edition of the same was printed at Oirford in 1709, by 
the care of Mr. Edward Thwaites. A more complete edition of this 
father's works was given to the public at Rome In six volumes in folio, in 
1732 and 1743, under the direction of Cardinal Querini, librarian of the 
Vatican, and Monsignor Joseph Assemani, first prefect of the same 
library. In this we have the original Syriac text of a good part of these 
works, and the ancient Greek version of the rest. The Latin translation 
*8 the work partly of Gerard Vossius, partly of F. Peter Benedetti, a 
Maronite Jesuit who lived at Rome ; and in the last volumes of Stephen 
Assemani, archbishop of Apamea, who also published the Chaldaic acts 
of the Martyrs, and is nephew of the aforesaid- Joseph Assemani. Ihe 
Greek text in the last volumes, especially in thje sixth, is published very 
incorrect. See Memoires de Trevoux for January, 1756, p. 146. 



102 THE MARTYRS OF GORCUM. [ J ULT 9. 

THE MARTYRS OF GORCUM. 

Nineteen priests and religious men, who were taken by the 
Calvinists in GorcunCi, after suffering manj insults, were hanged 
on account of their religion at Bril, on the 9th of July, 1572. 
Of these, eleven were Franciscan friars, called Recollects, of 
the convent of Gorcum, amongst whom were Nicholas Pick the 
guardian, and Jerom Werden, vicar of the same convent The 
former was thirty-eight years old, an eminent preacher, and a 
man endued with the primitive spirit of his order, especially the 
love of holy poverty and mortification. He feared the least 
superfluity even in the meanest and most necessary things, 
especially in meals ; and he would often say : " I fear if St. 
Francis were living, he would not approve of this or that." He 
was most zealous to preserve this spirit of poverty and penance 
in his house, and he used to call property and superfluity the 
bane of a religious state. His constant cheerfulness rendered 
piety and penance itself amiable. He often had these words in 
his mouth : " We must always serve God with cheerfulness.** 
He had frequently expressed an earnest desire to die a martyr, 
but sincerely confessed himself altogether unworthy of that 
honour. The other martyrs were a Dominican, two Norbertins, 
one Canon Regular of St Austin, called John Oosterwican,* 

• John Oosterwican was director to a convent of nuns of the same 
order in Gorcum ; he was then very old, and had often prayed that God 
would honour him with the crown of martyrdom. 

The names of the eleven Franciscans were Nicholas Pick, Jerom, a 
native of Werden, in the county of Horh, Theodoric of Embden, native 
of Amorfort, ISKcaise, Johnson, native of Heze, Wilhade, native of Den- 
mark, Grodfrey of Merveille, Antony of the town of Werden, Antony of 
Homaire, a village near Gorcum, Francis Bodes, native of Brussels. 
These were priests and preachers. The other two were lay-brothers, 
namely, Peter of Asca, a village in Brabant, and Cornelius of Dorestate* 
a village now caUed Wick, in the territory of Utrecht. The three 
curates were Leonard Vechel, Nicholas Poppel, and Godfrey Dimen. 
This last was a native of Gorcum, who having been rector of the imiver. 
sity of Paris, where he had studied and taught, was some time curate in 
Holland, near the French territories, but resigned his curacy and lived at 
Gorcum. 

The other martyrs were John Oosterwican mentioned above ; John, a 
Dominican of the province of Cologne, curate of Hornaire ; Adrian Hil- 
varenbeck, a Norbertin of Middleburg, who served a parish at Mun- 
ster, a village near the mouth of the Meuse; James Lacop of the 
same order and monastery, an assistant in a neighbouring parish to Mun. 
ster ; and Andrew Walter, a secular priest, curate of Heinort, near Dort. 



J0I.T 9.] ST. EVERILDIS, V. 103 

three curates, and another secular priest. The first of these 
curates was Leonard Vechel, the elder pastor at Gorcum. He 
had gained great reputation in his theological studies at Louvain 
under the celebrated Ruard Tapper ; and in the discharge of 
pastoral duties at Gorcum, had joined an uncommon zeal, piety, 
eloquence, and learning with such success, that his practice and 
conduct in difficult cases was a rule for other curates of the 
country, and his decisions were regarded as oracles at the uni- 
versity itself. For the relief of the poor, especially those who 
were sick, he gave his temporal substance with such tenderness 
and profusion as to seem desirous, had it been possible, to have 
given them himself. He reproved vice without respect of per- 
sons ; and by his invincible meekness and patience disarmed 
and conquered many who had been long deaf to all his remon- 
strances, and added only insults to their obstinacy. Nicholas 
Poppel was the second pastor at Gorcum, and though inferior 
in abilities, was in zeal worthy to be the colleague of Vechel, 
and to attain to the same crown with him. The rest of this 
happy company had made their lives an apprenticeship to mar- 
tyrdom. They were declared martyrs, and beatified by Clement 
X. in 1674. The relation of several miracles performed by 
their intercession and relics which was sent to Rome in order 
to their beatification, is published by the Bollandists.(l) The 
greater part of their relics is kept in the church of the Fran- 
ciscan friars at Brussels, whither they were secretly conveyed 
from Bril. See the accurate history of their martyrdom written 
by the learned doctor William Estius, printed at Douay in 1603. 
Also Batavia Sacra, part. 2. p. 174. and various memoirs col- 
lected by Solier the Bollandist, t. 2. Julij, p. 736. 

ST. EVERILDIS V., IN ENGLAND. 
KiNSGiLS, king of the West- Saxons, having been baptized by 
St. Berinus in 635, this holy virgin had the happiness of being 
brought to the knowledge of Christ. In order to devote herself 
most perfectly to the service and love of her heavenly spouse, 
she fled secretly from the house of her parents to seek some 
holy monastery of nuns, and was joined in the way by two 
other virgins named Bega and Wuldreda. St Wilfrid gave her 
CI) JuHj, t. 2, p. 823. 



104 THE SEVEN BROTHERS, &C., MM. [JuLY 10. 

A spot called before the Bishop's Dwelling, but since her time 
Everildisham, that is, the dwelling of Everildis. Neither F. 
Alford nor F. Solier were able to find the situation of this place. 
Here she trained up many virgins to the perfection of divine 
love, the summit of Christian virtue, by animating them with 
the true spirit, and continually encouraging them in the most 
fervent and most faithful discharge of all the duties, and ap- 
plication to all the exercises of their holy profession. She went 
to Grod on the 9th of July, on which day Solier the Bollandist 
found her name in an ancient copy of Usuard's Martyrolog3^ 
F. Alford sent to Bollandus a transcript of lessons used formerly 
in some church now unknown. Her name does not occur in 
any English or Irish Calendar now extant, nor has Alford 
mentioned her in his annals. See Solier, t. 2, Julij, p. 713. 



JULY X. 

THE SEVEN BROTHERS, MARTYRS, AND ST. 

FELICITAS THEIR MOTHER. 

From their genuine acts in Kuinart, and Tilletnont, t. 2. See the re- 
marks of lUnius the Bollandist, t. 3, Julij, p. 5. 

IN THE SECOND CENTURY. 

The illustrious martyrdom of these saints has been justly cele- 
brated by the holy fathers. It happened at Rome under the 
emperor Antoninus, that is, acording to several ancient copies 
of the acts, Antoninus Pius.* The seven brothers were the 
sons of St. Felicitas, a noble pious Christian widow in Rome, 
who brought them up in the most perfect sentiments and practice 

• Ceillier and some others think this emperor to have been M. Aure- 
lius Antoninus Philosophus, who was a persecutor, and reigned witli 
Lucius Verus ; the latter was absent from Borne in the Parthian war, 
from 162 to 166 ; on which account, say these authors, he did not appear 
in this trial. See Tillemont, t. 2, p. 326. But that these martyrs suf- 
fered under Antoninus Pius, in the thirteenth year of his reign, of 
Christ 150, we are assured by an old inscription in several ancient MS. 
copies of their acts mentioned by Ruinart. That this emperor put seve- 
ral Christians to death whilst he was governor of Asia, before his acces- 
sion to the empire, TertuUian testifies, (ad Scapul.) And that towards 
the end of his reign, notwithstanding his former mildness towards them, 
he again exercised the sword and torments on them, we have an un- 
doubted proof in the genuine epitaph of St. Alexander, martyr, produced 
ty Arringhi, Diss. 2. 1. 3, c. 22. See Berti in Saec. 2. 



July 10.] the seven brothers, &c., mm. 105 

of heroic virtue. After the death of her husband she served 
God in a state of continency* and employed herself wholly in 
prayer, fasting, and works of charity. By the public and edify- 
ing example of this lady and her whole family, many idolaters 
were moved to renounce the worship of their false gods, and to 
embrace the faith of Christ, which Christians were likewise 
encduraged by so illustrious a pattern only to profess. This 
raised the spleen of the heathenish priests, who complained to 
the emperor Antoninus that the boldness with which Felicitas 
publicly practised the Christian religion, drew many from the 
worship of the immortal gods who were the guardians and pro- 
tectors of the empire, and that it was a continual insult on them ; 
who, on that account, were extremely offended and angry with 
the city and whole state. They added, that in order to appease 
them, it was necessary to compel this lady and her children to 
sacrifice to them. Antoninus 'being himself superstitious was 
prevailed upon by this remonstrance to send an order to Publius 
the prefect of Rome, to take care that the priests should be 
satisfied, and the gods appeased in this matter. Publius caused 
the mother and her sons to be apprehended and brought before 
him. When this was done he took Felicitas aside, and used the 
strongest inducements to bring her freely to sacrifice to the 
gods, that he might not be obliged to proceed with severity 
against her and her sons ; but she returned him this answer : 
** Do not think to frighten me by threats, or to win me by fair 
speeches. The spirit of God within me will not suffer me to be 
overcome by Satan, and wiU make me victorious over all your 
assaults." Publius said in a great rage : " Unhappy woman, is 
it possible you should think death so desirable as not to permit 
even your children to live, but force me to destroy them by the 
most cruel torments?" "My children," said she, "will live 
eternally with Christ if they are faithful to him; but must 
expect eternal death if they sacrifice to idols." The next day 
the prefect, sitting in the square of Mars before his temple, sent 
for Felicitas and her sons, and addressing his speech to her 
«aid : " Take pity on your children, Felicitas ; they are in the 



* QusB in viduitatc permancns Deo suam Toverat castitatem. Ruin 
Act. Sincer. p. 21. 



106 THE SEVEN BBOTHEBS, &C., MM. [JULY lOi 

bloom of jouth, and may aspire to the greatest honours and 
preferments." The holy mother answered : " Your pity is really 
impiety, and the compassion to which you exhort me would 
make me the most cruel of mothers." Then turning herself 
towards her children, she said to them : " My sons, look up to 
heaven where Jesus Christ with his saints expects you. Be 
faithful in his love, and fight courageously for your souls." 
Publius being exasperated at this behaviour, commanded her to 
be cruelly buffeted, saying : " You are insolent indeed, to give 
them such advice as this in my presence, in contempt of thd 
orders of our princes." 

The judge then called the children to him one after another, 
and used many artful speeches, mingling promises with threats 
to induce them to adore the gods. Januarius, the eldest, ex- 
perienced his assaults the first, but resolutely answered him : 
" You advise me to do a thing that is very foolish, and contrary 
to all reason ; but I confide in- my Lord Jesus Christ, that he 
will preserve me from such an impiety." Publius ordered him 
to be stripped and cruelly scourged, after which he sent him 
back to prison. Felix, the second brother, was called next, and 
commanded to sacrifice. But the generous youth replied: 
" There is one only God. To him we offer the sacrifice of our 
hearts. We will never forsake the love which we owe to Jesus 
Christ. Employ all your artifices ; exhaust all inventioas of 
cruelty ; you will never be able to overcome our faith." The 
other brothers made their answers separately, that they feared 
not a passing death, but everlasting torments ; and that having 
before their eyes the immortal recompenses of the just, they 
despised the threats of men. Martialis, who spoke last, said : 
" All who do not confess Christ to be the true God, shall be 
cast into eternal flames."* The brothers, after being whipped, 
were remanded to prison, and the prefect, despairing to be able 
ever to overcome their resolution, laid the whole process before 
the emperor. Antoninus having read the interrogatory, gave 
an order that they should be sent to different judges, and be 
condemned to different deaths. Januarius was scourged to death 
with whips loaded with plummets of lead. The two next, Felix 

* Omnes qui non confitentur Christum verum esse Deum, in ignem 
etenium mitteDtur. Buin. p. 23, , 



JULT 10.] THE SEVEN BROTHERS, &C., MM. 107 

and Philip, were beaten with clubs till they expired. Sylvanus, 
the fourth, was thrown headlong down a steep precipice. The 
three youngest, Alexander, Vitalis, and Martialis, were be- 
headed, and the same sentence was executed upon the mother 
four months after. St. Felicitas is commemorated in the Roman 
Mart3rrology on the 23d of November; the sons on the 10th of 
July, on which day their festival is marked in the old Roman 
Calendar, published by Bucherius.(l) 

St Gregory the Great delivered his third homily on the 
Gospels, on the festival of St. Felicitas, in the church built over 
her tomb on the Salarian road. In this discourse he says, that 
this saint " having seven children was as much afraid of leaving 
them behind her on earth, as other mothers are of surviving 
theirs. She was more than a martyr, for seeing her seven dear 
children martyred before her eyes, she was in some sort a mar- 
tyr in each of them. She was the eighth in the order of time, 
but was from the first to the last in pain, and began her mar- 
tyrdom in the eldest^ which she only finished in her own death. 
She received a crown not only for herself, but likewise for all 
her children. Seeing them in torments she remained constant, 
feeling their pains by nature as their mother, but rejoicing for 
them in her heart by hope.** The same father takes notice how 
weak faith is in us : in her it was victorious over flesh and blood ; 
but in us is not able to check the sallies of our passions, or wean 
our hearts from a wicked and deceitful world. ** Let us be 
covered with shame and confusion," says he, " that we should 
fall so far short of the virtue of this martyr, and should suffer 
our passions still to triumph over faith in our hearts. Often 
one word spoken against us disturbs our minds ; at the least 
blast of contradiction we are discouraged or provoked ; but 
neither torments nor death were able to shake her courageous 
soul. We weep without ceasing when God requires of us the 
children he hath lent us ; and she bewailed her children when 
they did not die for Christ, and rejoiced whe^^ she saw them 
die." What afflictions do parents daily meet with from the 
disorders into which their children fall through their own bad 
example or neglect 1 Let them imitate the earnestness of St. 
Felicitas in forming to perfect virtue the tender souls which 
CI) In Cyclum Pasch. p. 2C8. 



108 SS. BUFINA, &C., VV. MM. f JULT 10. 

God hath committed to their charge, and with this saint they 
will have the greatest of all comforts in them ; and will by his 
grace count as many saints in their family as they are blessed 
"with children. 

SS. RUFINA AND SECUNDA, VIRGINS, MM. 

They were sisters, and the daughters of one Asterius, a man 
of a senatorian family in Rome. Their father promised them 
in marriage, the first to Armentarius, and the second to Ve- 
rinus, who were then both Christians, but afterwards aposta- 
tized from the faith when the storm raised by Valerian and 
G allien in 257, fell upon the church. The two virgins resisted 
their solicitations to imitate their impiety, and fled out of 
Rome ; but were overtaken, brought back, and after other tor- 
ments condemned by Junius Donatus, prefect of Rome, to lose 
their heads. They were conducted twelve miles out of Rome, 
executed in a forest on the Aurelian Way, and buried in the 
same place. It was then called the Black Forest, Sylva Nigra, 
but from these martyrs this name was changed into that of 
Sylva Candida or the White Forest. A chapel was built over 
their tomb, which Pope Damasus demolished, erecting a large 
church in its room. A town rose in the same place, which was 
called Sylva Candida, and made an episcopal see. But the 
city being destroyed by barbarians in the twelfth century, the 
bishopric was united by Calixtus IL, to that of Porto, and the 
relics of the saints were translated at the same time, in the year 
1120, to the Lateran basilic, where they are kept near the 
baptistery of Constantine. See their Acts abridged by TiUe- 
mont, t. 4, p. 5. Also the remarks of Pinius the BoUandist, t. 
S, Julij, p. 28, and Laderchius, Diss, de Basilicis SS. Marcellini 
ct Petri, c 2, p. 6. 



'July 11.] st. james, b. a 109 



JULY XI. 

ST. JAMES, BISHOP OF NISIBIS, C. 

From Theodoret, ^Plril. c. 1, et Hist. 1. 1, c. 7. Gennadius, c. 1. Tille- 
mont, t. 7, p. 263, Ceillicr, t. 4. Assemani, Bibl. Orient, t. 1, p. 
186. Cuper the Bollandist, and the saints's works, published in Ar- 
menian and Latin, bj Nic. AntonelU, at Borne, in 1755 ; add the ao- 
connts given of this stunt in the Menology of the Armenians at Venice, 
on the seventh day of the month Caghozi, the 15th of onr December ; 
in the Synaxary of the Egyptians on the eighteenth of Tobi, onr 12th 
of January, by St. Gregory of Nariegha, an Armenian bishop, in 960. 
autiior of many derout Armenian orations and prayers. (Orat. 99, in 
St Jacob, in libro Precum edito Constantinopoli, An. 1700.J Also by 
Moyses Cheronensis, Histor. Armense, 1. 3, art 7, though this author 
flourished not in the fifth century, (as the Whistons imagine with 
those who confound him with Moyses the Grammarian, who translated 
the Bible from the Greek and Syriac into the Armenian tongue, in the 
reign of Hieodosius the Younger, «s Galanus mentions,) but after the 
year 727, in which arose the great schism of which this historian 
speaks, and of which the patriarch John IV. of Oznium was author. 
See James Villotte, the Jesuit, in Diction. Armen. in Serie Fatriar. 
charum. 

A. D. 350. 

This eminent saint, and glorious doctor of the Syriac church, 
was a native of Nisibis, in Mesopotamia, which country was 
then subject to the eastern empire.* He had a genius rich by 
nature, which he cultivated with indefatigable application; 
though after laying a foundation of the sciences, he confined 
himself to sacred studies. In his youth entering the world he 
became soon apprized of its dangers. He saw that in it only 
ambition, vanity, and voluptuousness reign; that men here 
usually live in a hurry and a crowd, without finding leisure to 
look into themselves, or to study that great science which ought 
to be their only affair. He trembled at the sight of its vices, 



* Nisibis was the Assyrian name of this city, which was called by the 
Greeks Antiochia Mygdonise, from the river Mygdon, on which it was 
situated, which gave name to the territory, llie ancient name of this 
city, was Achar or Achad, one of the seats of the empire of Nimrod. 
*' He reigned in Arach, that is, Edessa, and in Achad, now called Nisi, 
bis," says St. Jerom. (qu. in Gen. c. 10, n. 10.) St. Ephrem had made 
the same observation before him. "He reigned in Arach, which ia 
Edessa, and in Achar, which is Nisibis, and in Calanne, which is Ctesi- 
phon, and in Kehebot, which is Adiab." St. Ephrem. Comm. in Gen. 
See Sim. Assemani, Bibl. Orient, t. 2, Diss, de MonophrsItU* 
VOL. vii. ,. ^ 



lid ST. J.OIE8, B. c. [July 11. 

and the slippery path of its pleasures, which, though thej seem 
agreeable at first, yet when taited are nothing but bitterness 
and mortal poison, and whilst they flatter the senses, destroy 
the soul ; and he thought it the safer part to conquer by flight, 
or at lea(st, with the Baptist, to prepare and strengthen himself 
in retirement, that he might afterwards be the better able to 
stand his ground in the field. He accordingly chose the high- 
est mountains for his abode, sheltering himself in a cave in the 
winter, and the rest of the year living in the woods, continually 
exposed to the open air; and knowing that our greatest con- 
quest is to subdue ourselves, in order to facilitate this impor- 
tant victory, he joined to assiduous prayer the practice of great 
austerities. He lived only on wild roots and herbs which he 
ate raw, and had no other garments than a tunic and cloak^ 
both made of goat's hair, very coarse. Notwithstanding his 
desire to live imknown to men, yet he was discovered, and 
many were not. afraid to climb the rugged rocks that they 
might recommend themselves to his prayers, and receive the 
comfort of his spiritual advice. He was favoured with the 
gifts of prophecy and miracles in an uncommon measure, of 
which he gave several proofs in a journey he took into Persia 
to visit the new churches that were planting there, and 
strengthen the young converts labouring under grievous per- 
secutions. His presence fortified them in their good reso- 
lutions, and inspired them with that spirit of martyrdom which 
afterwards showed itself in their glorious triumphs. He con- 
verted many idolaters, and wrought several miracles in that 
country. He suffered torments for the faith in the persecution 
continued by Maximinus II., for Gennadius places him in the 
number of confessors under that tyrant ; and Kicephorus names 
him among the holy bishops in the council of Nice, who bore 
the glorious marks of their sufferings for Christ. His personal 
merit and great reputation occasioned his promotion to the see 
6f Nisibis ; but here he still followed the same course of life he 
had inured himself to on the mountains, to his fasts and aus- 
terities adding the care of the poor, the correction of sinners, 
and all the other toils and hardships of episcopacy. Such was 
his charity for the poor, that he seemed to possess nothing but 
for their relief. In the acts oi St. Miles and his companions, 



■-*, 



July 11.] st. james, b. c. Ill 

Persian martyrs, it is related that St. James built at Nisibis a 
very stately church, St. Miles coming to that city wad 
astonished at the majesty of the edifice, and having made some 
stay there with St. James, returned to Adiab, whence he sent 
the holy bishop a present of a great quantity of silk for the 
ornaments of his ^hurch. 

Theodoret relates(l) of him, that one day as he was travel- 
ling, he was accosted by a gang of beggars who had concerted 
a plot whereby to impose upon the servant of God, with the 
view of extorting money from him on pretence to bury their 
companion, who lay stretched on the ground as if he had been 
dead. The holy man gave them what they asked, and " offer- 
ing up supplications to God as for a soul departed, he prayed 
that his divine majesty would pardon him the sins he had com- 
mitted whilst he lived, and that he would admit him into the 
company of the saints," says Theodoret. As soon as the saint 
was gone by, his companions calling upon him to rise and take 
his share of the booty, were strangely surprised to find him 
really dead. Seized with sudden fear and grief, they shrieked 
in the utmost consternation, and immediately ran after the man 
of God, cast themselves at his feet, confessed the cheat, begged 
forgiveness, and by entreaties and mournful looks pleaded for 
pity, and besought him by his prayers to restore their unhappy 
companion to life, which the saint performed, as this grave 
author assures us. When the heresy of Arius was broached, 
and began to infect many churches, St. James strenuously ex- 
erted himself in defending his church from the contagion, and 
laboured to crush the growing evil. He assisted at the council 
of Nice in 325, as Theodoret and Gennadius testify ; likewise 
at the council of Antioch held under St. Eustathius, about the 
year 326. Being at Constantinople in 336, when Constantino 
commanded St. Alexander, the holy bishop of that city, to 
leave his see in case he persisted to refuse admitting to com- 
munion Arius, who had imposed on that prince by an hypo- 
critical confession of faith, St. James exhorted the people to 
have recourse to God by fasting and prayer during seven 
days ; and on the eighth day, which was the very Sunday on 
which Arius was to have been admitted, the unhappy man 
(1) "Philoth. eeu Hist. ReUg. c. 1, p. 767. 



112 ST. J ABIES, B. c. [Jolt 11. 

was found dead in a privy into which he had stepped to ease 
nature.* 

The most famous miracle of our Thaumaturgus was that hj 
which he protected the city of Nisibis from the barbarians, as 
is related by Theodoret both in his religious and ecclesiastical 
history; by Theophanes, the Alexandrian Chronicle, and even by 
Philcstorgius himself,(l) who was a rank Arian, and cannot be 
suspected of being too favourable to St. James. Sapor II., the 
haughty king of Persia, twice besieged Nisibis with the whole 
strength of his empire, whilst our saint was bishop ; and the 
city was every time miraculously protected by the prayers of 
St. James. Of these sieges the first was laid soon after the 
death of Constantine the Great, which happened on the 22nd 
of May, in 337, after that prince had reigned thirty-nine years, 
nine months, and twenty-seven days. His valour had kept the 
barbarians in awe. But upon his demise Sapor came, and in 
338 sat down before Nisibis with a prodigious army of foot, 
horse, elephants, and all sorts of warlike engines; but after 
continuing the siege sixty- three days, was compelled shamefully 
to raise it, and return into Persia ; and his army, harassed by 
the enemy in its march, and exhausted by fatigues, was at 
length destroyed by famine and epidemical diseases.(2) The 
emperor Constantius, when the Persians again invaded the ter- 
ritories of the Romans in 348, by his pusillanimity and miscon- 
duct gave them a great superiority in the field. And Cosroes, 
elated with success, and enriched by the plunder of many pro- 
vinces, ventured a second time with an army still much 
stronger than before to lay siege to Nisibis in 350. His troops 
having seized all the avenues, and made their approaches with 
a fury beyond example, he first endeavoured to make a breach 
in the wslls by battering rams and mines, but all to no pur- 
pose. At length, after seventy days' labour, he caused a dam 



(1) PhUost. Hist. 1. 3, c. 23 

(2) Chron. Alex. p. 287. S 
See Le Beau, Hist, da Bas Empire, 1. 6, n. 11, t. 2, p. 22. 



(2) Chron. Alex. p. 287. S Hieron. in Chron. and Theophan. p. 28. 



• F. Cnper thinks the account of this event in Theodoret*s Beligioua 
History to be an addition inserted from other places, t. 4. JoL in Qom - 
flxent, prsevio ad Yitam, S. Jacpbi. n. 12 et 17* 



JULT 11.] ST. JAMES, B.C. 113 

to be raised at a considerable distance from the city, thereby to 
stop the river Mjgdon, which ran through it ; this he ordered 
to be broke down when the water was at its full height ; so 
that the violence with which it beat against the wall of the city 
made a wide breach in it. At this the Persians rent the air 
with loud shouts of joy; but deferred the assault till the next 
day, that the waters might be first carried off, they not being 
able to make their approaches by reason of the inundation. 
When they came up to the breach they were strangely sur- 
prised to find another wall which the inhabitants had raised 
behind the former with an astonishing expedition, being en- 
couraged by St. James, who remained himself all the time in 
the church at his prayers, by which he conquered, like Moses 
on the mountain. Sapor marching up to the breach in person, 
fancied he saw a man in royal apparel on the wall, whose 
purple and diadem cast an uncommon brightness. This person 
he believed was the !Roman emperor Constantius, and threat- 
ened to put to death those who had told him the emperor was 
at Antioch. But upon their giving him fresh assurances that 
Constantius was really there, and convinced that heaven fought 
for the Romans, he threw up a javelin into the air, out of im- 
potent revenge because heaven seemed to take part against 
him. Then St. Ephrem, deacon of Edessa and St. James's 
disciple, being present, entreated him to go upon the walls to 
take a view of the Persians, and pray to God that he would 
defeat the infidel army. The bishop would not pray for the 
destruction of any one; but he implored the divine mercy that 
the city might be delivered from the calamities of so long a 
siege. Afterwards, going to the top of a high tower, and 
turning his face towards the enemy, and seeing the prodigious 
multitude of men and beasts which covered the whole country, 
he said : ** Lord, thou art able by the weakest means to humble 
the pride of thy enemies ; defeat these multitudes by an army 
of gnats." God heard the humble prayer of his servant, as he 
had done that of Moses against the Egyptians, and as he had 
by the like means vanquished the enemies of his people when 
he conducted them out of Egypt.(l) For scarcely had the saint 
spoken those words, when whote clouds of gnats and fiies came 
(1) Wisdom xvi. 0. 



114 ST. JAMKS, B. o [July 11. 

pourisg down upon the Persians, got into the elephants' trunks, 
and the horses' ears and nostrils, which made them chafe and 
foam, throw their riders, and put the whole armj into confusion 
and di8order.(I) A famine and pestilence which followed, 
earried off a great part of the army ; and Sapor, after lying 
aboTe three months before the place, set fire to .all his own 
engines of war, and was forced to abandon the siege and return 
home with the loss of twenty thousand men. Sapor received a 
third foil under the walls of Nisibis, in 359,(2) upon which he 
turned his arms against Amidus, took that strong city, and put 
the garrison and the greater part of the inhabitants to the 
sword.* The citizens of Nisibis attributed their preservation to 
the intercession of their glorious patron, St. James, though he 
seems to have been translated to glory before this last siege. 
Gennadius says he died in the reign of Constantius, whose 
death happened in 361. f That of St. James is placed by most 
modems in 350, soon after the second siege of Nisibis. Gen- 
nadius informs us, that out of a pious confidence that the saint's 
earthly remains would be a pledge of his intercession with God 

(1) Theodoret, Hist. Relig. in vit. S. Jacobi, et in Hist. Eccl. 1. 2, 
c. 30. Philost. 1. 3, c. 32. Theophan. p. 33. Chron. Alex. Zozim. 
1. 3. Zonar. t. 2, p. 44. Le Beau, 1. 7, p. 127, t. 2. 

(2) Ammian. Marcell. 1. 18, c. 7. Zonaras, t. 2, p. 20. Monsigiior 
Antonelli in vit. St. Jocobi, p. 26. 



* Tillemont, Hist, des Emp. t. 4, p. 674, places the second siege of 
Nisibis in 346, and the third in 350. But the dates abovementioned are 
more agreeable to history, and adopted by the suffrage o£ most modern 
critics. 

t The two elder Assemani place the death of St. James in 338, soon 
after the first siege of Nisibis, of which they understand the circum- 
stances which are usually ascribed to the second seige ; for Theodoret 
confounds them together, as Garnier, (in hunc Theodoreti locum,) Pe.. 
tau, (in Or. 1, Juliani,) Henricus Valesius, (in Hist. Eccl.) Theodo- 
ret, (Ammian. Marcell. 1. 18,) Pagi, Tillemont, and others observe. 
Simon Assemani confirms this chronology by the express testimony of 
the authors of two Syriac Chronicles, that of Dionysius, patriarch of the 
Jacobites, and that of Edessa. See Simon Assemani, Biblio. Orient, t. 1, 
c. 5, p. 17, and Stephen Evodius Assemani in Op. S. Ephrem, t. 1. But 
neither of these Chronicles seem of sufficient authority to counterbalance 
the testimony of the Greek historians, and the circumstances that per- 
suade us that St. James surviyed the second siege of Nisibis, upon which 
Tillemont, Ceillier, &c. place the death of St. James in 350 ; and Cuper 
the BoUandist, between the years 350 and 361, in which Constantius 
died. 



JdLT ll.J ST. JAME6, B.C. i\6 

for the protection of the city against the barbarians, by an 
order of the emperor Constantius, though an Arian, pursuant 
to an express injunction <rf his father Constantino the Greal^ 
notwithstanding the severe laws to the contrary then in force, 
the body of St James was buried within the walls of the city, 
Julian^ the Apostate, in 361, envying the saint this distin- 
guished privilege, commanded these sacred remains to be re* 
moved without the city. Soon after, upon his death the 
emperor Jovian, in 363, in order to purchase peace of the 
Persians, was obliged to yield up to them Nisibis, with the five 
Eoman provinces situated on the Tigris, and a great part of 
Mesc^tamia. But the inhabitants of Nisibis who were com- 
pelled by Jovian to remove before he delivered up the city, 
carried with them the sacred relics of this saint, which, accord- 
ing to the Menology of the Armenians at Venice, were brought 
to Constantinople about the year 970. His name is famous 
both in the Eastern and Western Martyrologies. His festival 
is kept by the Latins on the 15th of July, by the Greeks on 
the 13th of January and the 31st of October, by the Syrians 
on the 18th of January, and by the Armenians on a Saturday 
in the month of December. The last honour him with no less 
solemnity than the Assyrians, and observe before his feast a 
fast of five days with the same severity with that of Lent. In 
his office they sing the long devout Armenian hymns, which 
were compiled in his honour by St. Nierses, patriarch of 
Armenia, the fourth of that name, surnamed of Ghelaia, who 
strenuously defended the union with the Latin church against 
the Greek emperor, Michael Comnenus, in the twelfth cen- 
tury, and is honoured by the orthodox Armenians among the 
6aints.(l) 

St. James's learning and writings have procured him a rank 
next to St. Ephrem among the doctors of the Syriac church ; 
and the Armenians honour him as one of the principal doctors 
of their national church. For though St. James was a Syrian, 
he wrote excellent treatises in the Armenian language for their 

(I) See on him Galanus in parte 1 . Historiali Concil. Armen. cum 
Roman, p. 239, and F. Jamea ViUote, S. J. in serie Chronol. Fatriarcha- 
nun Armcniae, printed in the eild of his Latin-Armenian Dictionaiy. 



116 ST. JAMXB, B. C. [J 171^ II. 

instruction,* at tlie request of a holj bishop of that nation 
called Gregoxji whose letter to our saint is still extant. In it 
he promises himself the happiness of paying St. James a visit, 
and passing some time with him, in order to improve himself 
more perfectly by hb lessons in the knowledge and practice of 
tme virtue : in the mean time he earnestly conjures him to 
favour him with some short instructions, and teach him what 
is the true foundation of a spiritual life of faith, by what means 
the edifice is to be raised in our souls, and by what good works, 
by what virtues it is to be finished and brought to perfection. 
St. James complied with his desire in eighteen excellent dis- 
courses still extantf They are published at Rome in one vo- 

* These are extant, addressed not to St. Gregory the apostle of Ar- 
menia, snmamedthe lUaminator, as some copiers hare mistaken, but 
probably to his nephew, another St. Gregory, who, being consecrated 
bishop, preached the faith in Albania, a province of Greater ArmAnin, 
near the Caspian sea, where he was crowned with martyrdom among the 
infidel barbarians in the very country where Baroniuf places the martyr- 
dom of the apostle St. Bartholomew. See Galanus, Hist. Eccl. Arme- 
norum, c. 5, et Not. ib. Also Antondli, not. in ep. S. Gregorii ad S. 
Jaoobum Misib. p. 1. 

t These eighteen discourses of St. James are mentioned by Gennadios, 
who gives their titles, (t. 2, p. 901, Op. S. Hier. Veron. an. 1735,) com- 
mended by St. Athanasios (who calls them monuments of the simplicity 
and candonr of an apostolic mind. Bp. encyclic, ad episoopos Egypti et 
LybisB) and by the Armenian writers quoted by Antonelli, who demon. 
Btrates from the discourses themselves &at they are a work of the fourth 
century. 

St. James, in the first. On Faith, demonstrates this to be the founda- 
tion of our spiritual edifice, which is raised upon it by hope and love, which 
rendered the Christian soul the house and temple of God, the ornaments 
of which are all good works, as fasting, prayer, chastity, and all the 
fruits oi Hie Holy Ghost. He commends &ith from the divine autiiori^ 
of Christ, who every where requires it, from its indispensable necessity, 
from the heroic virtues which it produces, the eminent saints it has 
formed, and the miracles it has wrought. The subject of his second dis- 
course is Charity, or the Love of God and our Neighbour, in which the 
whole law of Christ is comprised, and which is the most excellent of all 
virtues, and the perfection of all sanctity, admirably taught by Christ 
both by word and example ; the end of all his doctrine, mysteries, and 
sufferings bdng to plant his charity in our hearts. In the third discourse 
he treats on fasting, universal temperance, and self-denial, by which we 
subdue and govern our senses and ]>assions, die to ourselves, and obtain 
all blessings o£ God, and the protection of the angels, who are moved to 
assist and fight for us, as he proves from examples and passages of holy 
writ. (p. 60, 61, 62.) In his fourth he speaks on Frayer, on which he 
delivers admirable maxims, teaching that its excellence is derived from 
the puri^, sanctity, and fervour of the heart, upon which the fire de. 
ecends from heaven, and which gloifies God even by its silence. "But 



JUI-T 11.] ST. JAMBS, B. C. 117 

lume^ fdio, in 1756, in Armenian and Latin, by M. Nicholas 
Antonelli, canon of the Lateran basilic. 

The visible protection with which God watches over his ser- 
vants ought to excite our confidence in him. He assures us 

none," sajs he, "will be cleansed unless they have been washed in the 
larer of iMtptism, and hare received the body and blood of Christ. ' For 
the blood is expiated by this Blood, and the body cleansed by this Body. 
Be assiduous in holy prayer, and in the beginning of all prayer place that 
which our Lord hatii taught us. When you pray, always remember your 
friends, and me a sinner," &c. 

His fifth discourse. On War, is chiefly an inyectiye against pride, in 
Tanquishing which consists our main spiritual conflict. The sixth dis- 
course is most remarkable. The title is. On Devout Persons, that is, 
Ascetes. The Armenian word Ugdavor signifies one who by tow has 
consecrated himself to God. From this discourse it is manifest that some 
of these Ascetes had devoted themselves to God in a state of continency 
by TOW, others only by a resolution. The saint most pathetically ex- 
horts them to fervour and watchfulness, and excellently inculcates the 
obligation which every Christian lies under of becoming a spiritual man 
formed upon the iij^e of Christ, the second Adam, in order to rise with 
him to glory. He%iveighs against some Ascetes who kept under the 
juune roof a woman Ascete to serve them : a practice no less severely 
condemned by St. Gregory Nazianzen. (Carm. 3, p. 56, and Or. 43, p. 
701.) St. Basil, (Ep. 55, p. 149.) St. Chrysostom, the council of Nice, 
that of Ancyra, &c. St. James was himself an Ascete from his youth, 
St. Gregory, to whom he sends these discourses, was also one, and it is 
clear from many passages in St. Gregory Nazianzen, St. Basil, and others, 
that they were numerous in Cappadoda, Fontus, and Armenia before St. 
Basil founded there the monastic life. See Antonelli's note, ib. p. 203. 
St. James, in his seventh discourse. On Penance, strongly exhorts sin- 
ners to confess speedily their crimes ; to conceal which through shame is 
final impenitence. He adds, the priest cannot disclose such a confession, 
(p. 237.) The infidels and several heretics in the first ages of the church 
denying the general resurrection of bodies, St. James proves that mys- 
tery in his eighth discourse. On the Resurrection of the Dead. His ninth, 
On Humility, as an excellent eulogium of that virtue, by which men are 
made the children of God, and brethren of Christ ; and it is but justice 
in man, who is but dust. Its fruits are innocence, simplicity, meekness, 
flweetnesB, charity, patience, prudence, mercy, sincerity, compunction, 
and peace. For he who loves humility is always blessed, and enjoys 
constant peace ; Grod, who dwelleth in the meek and humble, abiding in 
nim. 

The tenth discourse. On Pastors, contains excellent advice to a pastor 
of souls, especially on his obligation of watching over and feeding his 
fiock. In the eleventh. On Circumcision, and in the twelfth. On the 
Sabbath, he shows against the Jews, that those laws no longer oblige, 
and that the Egyptians learned circumcision from the Jews. In the 
thirteenth, On the Choice of Meats, he proves none are unlawi[!ul of their 
own nature. In the fourteenth. On the Passover, that the Paschal so- 
lemnity of Christ's resurrection has abolished that Jewish festival : he 
adds that the Christian, in honour of Christ's crucifixion, keeps every 
Friday, and also, at Nisibis, the fourteenth day of every month. In the 



118 ST. JAMES, B.C. [JlTLY 11.] 

that Ills tenderness for them surpasses the bowels of the most 
affectionate mother, and he styles himself their protector and 
their safeguard«(l) This made St, Chrysostom cry out,(2) 
" Behold, I testify and proclaim to all men witli a loud voice, 
and would raise it, were it possible, louder than any trumpet, 
that no man on earth can hurt a good Christian, nor even the 
tyrafht the devil. If God be for us^ who is against us 9 says 
the apostle." How far otherwise is it with the wicked ! They 
are cast oiF by their God ; they are not his people ; not fed or 
watched over by that special tender providence which he af- 
fords hig servants : they are a forsaken, abandoned vineyard.(3) 
He is their enemy, and bath set his eyes upon them for evil, 
not for good.(4) What rest or comfort can the sinner enjoy 
who knows he hath an almighty arm continually stretched out 
against him ? 

(1) Ps. xxxiii. 16. Prov. iii. 23. Zach. ii. 8. Gen- xr. 1, I^v. 
xxxvi. 3. ^ 

(2) S. Chrys. Horn. 51, in Act. Horn. 15, in Rodf et 91, in Matt. 

(3) Ose. i. 2. Zech. xi. 9. Isa. v. 6. 

(4) Amos. ix. 4. 

fifteenth he proves the BeprobaUon of the Jews. In the sixteenth the 
Diyinity of the Son of God. In the seventeenth the Virtue of holy 
Virginity, which both the Ascetes and the clergy professed, and which 
he defends against the Jews only ; for he wrote before the heretics in the 
fourth age c^umniated the sanctity of that state. In the eighteenth he 
confutes the Jews, who pretended that their temple and synagogue would 
be again restored at Jerusalem. 

The long lett^ to the x>riests of Seleucia and Gtesiphon against schisms 
and dissensions, 'when Papas, the haughty bishop of those cities, had 
raised there a fatal schism, is in some MSS. ascribed to St. James ; but 
was certainly a synodal letter sent by a council held on that occasion, 
nine years after the council of Nice : on which see the life of St. Miles, 
and the notes of the archbishop of Apamea, Evodius Assemani, ib. Act 
Mart. Orient, t. I, p. 72, and Jos. Assemani Bibl. Orient. 1. 1, p. 86, &c. 

Among the oriental liturgies, one in Chaldaic, formerly in use among 
the Syrians, bears the name of St. James of Nisibis. Gennadius men- 
tions twenty-six books written by this holy doctor in the Syriac tongue, 
all on pious subjects, or on the Persian persecution. They were never 
translated into Greek. 

The letters of St. James and St. Gregory are published by Assemani 
Bibl. Orient, t. I, p. 552, 632. 



cTULY 11.] ST HIDULPHUS, B. 119 

ST, HIDULPHUS, BISHOP AND ABBOT. 

From Richeriug, in his Chronicle of Senones, t. 3. Spicileg. and the 
saint's three imperfect lives, with the remarks of Solier the Bollandist, 
t. 3, Jul. p. 205. See also Cahnet, Hist, de Lorraine, 1, 10, p. 445, 
&c. 

A. D. 707. 

St. Hidulph, or Hildulph, was bom at Ratisbon in Bavaria, 
of one of the most illustrious families in the country, and 
renounced great temporal possessions in his youth to conse* 
crate himself to God in an ecclesiastical state, which he em- 
braced, with his brother St. Erard, who was advanced to the 
episcopal see at Eatisbon, was buried at Moyen-Moutier, and 
is honoured among the saints on the 8th of January.(l) Hi- 
dulph was consecrated archbishop of Triers, and discharged for 
some time all the duties of a vigilant and zealous pastor. 
The monastery of St. Maximin had been founded in the fourth 
century, and douttless observed the discipline of the oriental 
monks. Hidulph introduced into it the Benedictin Order about 
the year 665, and so much augmented it in revenues and settled 
in it so perfect a spirit of monastic virtue, that it was the admi- 
ration of that age, and is to this day one of the most flourishing 
abbeys in Germany. 

Hidulph was much taJken with the charms of holy retirement, 
with the happy security and liberty of that state, its exercises 
of humility, penance, and prayer, and the liberty which it 
affords of living disengaged from worldly attachments and dis- 
tractions, in a continual application to heavenly things. He 
was also strongly affected by the example and conversation of 
many divine men who then adorned the church, and maintained 
in it the true ^irit of Christ, by the odour of sanctity which 
their angelic minds and deportment spread, and who were 
raised to this heroic virtue by the exercises of a monastic life. 
The obligations of his own charge (which he could not abandon 
unless his reasons for resigning it were such as to be approved 
of by a superior authority, as that of a primate, and rather of the 
pope as patriarch of the West) withheld him some time ; but he 

(1) Molanus in Auctario Martyrol. Menard, in Martyr. Boned 
Bacelin, &c. 



120 ST. HIDtTIiPHUS, B, [JULT 11. 

at length found means to resign his see to St. Yeomade, abbot 
of St. Maximin's, and hid himself in that monastery.* But 
finding it impossible to live in the obscurity which he sought, 
in the midst of his own diocess, he retired secretly amidst the 
mountains of Voge, on the confines of Lorrain, and settled in a 
small hermitage on the spot which the monks of Senones and Es- 
tival gave him, and on which he soon after, about the year 676, 
built the monastery of Moyen-Moutier. This name was given 
it from its situation between the abbeys of Senones to the east, 
of Estival to the west, of Bodon-Moutier to the north, and to 
the^ south that of Jointures, now the collegiate church of canons, 
and the town of St. Die. Three hundred monks served God 
under his direction ; for, besides those who composed the mo- 
nastery of Moyen-Moutier, at the request of his friend St. Die, 
upon his death-bed, and of his community, he took upon him 
also the charge of that abbey, and many lived under his con- 
duct in separate cells. St. Hidulph governed his own monas- 
tery above thirty years, though for some time, whilst he was 
obliged to reside at St. Die's, he appointed a vicar in his room 
at Moyen-Moutier. He returned thither before his death, 
which happened in 707, or, according to others, in 713. His 
relics are kept in a silver shrine in this monastery, which at 
present bears his name, and in union with that of St. Yannes, 
began the reformation of the Benedictin Order, which is so 
famous in Lorrain, and in France. St. Hidulph's name is not 
inserted in the Boman Martyrology but is famous in German 
French, and Benedictin Calendars. 

The sanctity of those ancient monks who, by the exercises of 
humility and holy solitude, attained to so wonderful a victory 
over their passions, so sublime a degree of virtue, and so hea- 
venly a temper as to have seemed rather angels than men, was 
the admiration even of infidels, and the edification of all those 
who had the happiness of enjoying their conversation. " For 
my part," said St. Sulpicius Severus, or his friend Fosthumi- 

* Some hare imagined that St. Hidulph was only chorepiscopus or 
Ticar, probably with episcopal orders, for the administration of part of the 
diocess. But the most judicious critics agree with the original writers of 
his life, that he was himself archbishop <^ Triers. 



JCTI^Y 11.] ST. PIUS, I., P.M. 121 

ftnus,(l) " 60 long as I shall keep alive and in my senses, I 
shall ever celebrate the monks of Egypt, pndse the anchorets, 
and admire the hermits.'' Of the same another ancient eje- 
Tntness sa7S,(2) " there have I seen many fathers leading an 
angelic life, and walking after the example of Jesas." The 
more happy and the more perfect a religious state is, the greater 
ought to be the watchfulness and the fervour of those who are 
engaged in it not to fall short of their obligations, and lose the 
precious graces of their vocation. 

Persons in the world are usually inclined to show no indul- 
gence for the least failings which they observe in religious per- 
sons. How much soever the reformation and perfect sanctifica- 
tion of the more illustrious portion of the flock of Christ be to 
be desired and prayed for by all, and promoted by the chief 
pastors, these severe censors would better employ their zeal in 
looking into, and reforming their own hearts. They must never 
forget that aU Christians, by their baptismal engagements and 
the sacred law of the gospel which they profess, are bound to 
sanctify their souls, and to serve God in the perfect sentiments 
and practice of all virtues. If in this degenerate age many 
religious establishments stand in need of a spur or some refor- 
mation, we may believe an enemy " that there is no class or 
condition of Christians in general which does not want it still 
much more." 

ST. PIUS I., POPE, M. 

According to the pontificals, he was the son of one Rufinus, 
and a native of Aquileia. He had served the church among 
the clergy at Rome many years under Adrian and Antoninus 
Pius,* when, according to Tillemont^ in the fourth year of tho 

(1) Sulpic. Sever. Dial. 1, c. 26, ol. 18, p. 94, ed. nov. Veron. aii. 
1741. 

(2) Heraclides ap. Cotel. Monum. Eccl. Gr. t. 3, p. 172. See St. 
Chrys. contra oppugn, yitse monast. t. 1. S. Gr. Naz. St. Basil, ftc. 

* Among the heathen emperors of Rome, Titus, the two Antonines, 
and Alexander deserved the best of their subjects, and the three last 
gained a great reputation for moral virtue. The Antonines were emi- 
nent for their learning, and devoted themselves to the Stoic philosophy. 
Airius Antoninus, who had distinguished himself by his moderation and 
love of justice in several magistracies, was adopted by the Emperor 
Adrian w .138, «9d ujpouai his death in the same year ascended the impe- 



122 ST. PIUS, I., P.M. [July 11. 

reign of the latter he succeeded St. Hjginus in the papacy in 
142. He condemned the heresiarch Valentinus, and rejected 

rial throne. He was truly the father of his people during a reign of 
twenty- two years, and died in 161, being seventy-seven years old. He 
obtained the surname of Pius, according to some, by his gratitude to 
Adrian ; but, according to others, by his clemency and goodness. He 
had often in his mouth the celebrated saying of Scipio Africanus, tliat 
he would rather save the life of one citizen than destroy one thousand 
enemies. He engaged in no wars, except that by his lieutenants he re- 
strained the Daci, Alani, and Mauri, and by the conduct of LoUius Ur- 
bicus quieted the Britons, confining the Caledonians to their mountains 
and forests by a new wall. Yet the pagan virtues of this prince were 
mixed with an alloy of superstition, vice, and weakness. When the 
senate refused to enroll Adrian among the gods, out of a just detestation 
of his cruelty and other vices, Antoninus, by tears and entreaties, ex- 
torted from it a' decree by which divine honours were granted that infa- 
mous prince, and he appointed priests and a temple for his worship. He 
likewise caused his wife Faustina to be honoured after her death as a 
goddess, and was reproached for the most dissolute life of his daughter 
Paustina the Younger, whom he gave in marriage to his adopted son, 
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. 

Xipliilin writes that the Christians shared in the mildness of his govern- 
ment. Yet though he did not raise by fresh edicts any new persecution, 
it is a notorious mistake of DodweU and some others, who pretend that 
no Christians suffered death for the faith during his reign, at least by his 
order. Tertullian informs us (1. ad Scapul. c. 4,) that Arrius Antoninus, 
when he was only proconsul of Asia, put in execution the old unjust re- 
script of Trajan ; and having punished some Christians with death, dis- 
missed the rest, crying out to them : ** O wretches, if you want to die, 
have you-not halters and precipices to end your lives by ?'* St. Justin, 
in his first apology, which he addressed to Antoninus Pins, who was 
then emperor, testifies that Christians were tortured with the most bar- 
barous cruelty without having be6n convicted of any crime. Also St. 
Irenaeus, (1. 3, c. 3,) Eusebius, (I. 4, c. 10,) and the author of an ancient 
poem which is published among the works of Tertullian, are incontestable 
vouchers that this emperor, whom CaiMtolinus calls a most zealous wor- 
shipper of the gods, often shed the blood of saints. Bv the acts of St. 
Felicitas and her sons, it appears what artifices the pag^n priests made 
use of to stir up the emperors and magistrates against the Christians. 
At length, however, Antoninus Pius, in the fifteenth year of his reign, 
of Christ 152, according to Tillemont, wrote to the states of Asia, com- 
manding that all persons who should be impeached merely for beUevin.s: 
in Christ, should be discharged, and their accusers punished according Ut 
the laws against informers, adding, " You do but harden them in their 
opinion, for you cannot oblige them more than by making them die for 
their religion. Thus they triumph over you by choosing rather to die 
than to comply with your wiU." See Eusebius, 1. 4, c. 26, where he 
also mentions a like former rescript of Adrian to Minutius Fundaniis.' 
Nevertheless, it is proved by Aringhi (Eoma Subterran. 1. 3, c. 22,) tlwit 
some were crowned with martyrdom in this reign after the aforesaid re- 
script, the pusillanimous prince not having courage always to protect 
these innocent subjects from the fury of the populace or the malice of 
some governors. 



July 12.] st. john gualbeht, a. 123 

Marcion, who came from Pontus to Rome after the death of 
Hyginus, as we have related elsewhere. The conflicts which 
St. Pius sustained obtained him the title of martyr, which is 
given him not only in Usnard's Martyrology, but also in many 
others more ancient ; though Fontanini, a most judicious and 
learned critic, strenuously maintains, against Tiliemont, that 
he died by the sword. He passed to a better life in 157, and 
was buried at the foot of the Vatican hill on the 1 1th of July. 
See Tiliemont, t. 2, p* 312, and especially Fontanini, wlio dis- 
cusses at length all things relating to this pope, in his Historia 
Literaria Aquileiensis, L 2, c. 3 and 4. 

ST. DROSTAN, ABBOT, 

Was a prince of the royal blood in Scotland, educated under 
the discipline of the great St, Columba. He was afterwards 
abbot of Dalcongaile ; but in his old age lived a recluse in a 
forest. He died about the year 809. His sacred remains were 
deposited in a stone coffin at Aberdeen. See Colgan, ad 1 1 Jul. 



JULY XIL 
ST. JOHN GUALBERT, ABBOT, 

ro UNDER OP THE BEIilGIOUS ORDES OF VAIXIS UMBROSA. 

From his exact liffa compiled by Blaise Melanisius, general of his Order, 
with the long notes of Cuper the BoUandist. See also two other lives 
of the saint, with a long history of his miracles, ib. t. 3. Julij, pp. 
3, 11. 

A. D. 1073. 
St. JoHW GuAiiBERT was born at Florence of rich and noble 
parents, and in his youth was carefully instructed in the Chris- 
tian doctrine and in the elements of the sciences ; but after- 
wards, by conversing with the world, he imbibed a relish for 
its vanities cmd follies. "While a thirst of worldly pleasure kept 
possession of his desires, and seemed to him innocent, and 
while he thought a certain degree of worldly pride the privilege 
of his birth, he was a stranger to the gospel maxims of penance, 
meekness, and lowliness of heart ; and all arguments of virtue 
lost their force upon him. But God was pleased, by a remark-^ 



124 8T. JOHN GUALBERT, A. fJui.T 12. 

able accident^ to open Ids eyes, and to discover to him his errors, 
and the extent of his obligations. Hugo, his onlj brother, was 
murdered by a gentleman of the country ; and our young noble- 
man determined to revenge the crime by the death of him who 
had perpetrated it, and who seemed out of the reach of the 
]aws. Under the influence of his resentment, which was much 
heightened by the invectives and persuasion of his own fa- 
ther, Gualbert, he neither listened to the voice of reason 
nor of reUgion. The motive of revenge is criminal if it 
creep into the breast even in demanding the just punish- 
ment of a delinquent; much more if it push men to vindicate 
their own cause themselves by returning injury for injury 
and wreaking wrongs on those who inflicted thenu But pas- 
sion stifled remorse, and John was falsely persuaded that his 
honour in the world required that he should not suffer so fla« 
grant an outrage to pass unpunished. It happened that riding 
with his man home to Florence on Good Friday, he met his 
enemy in so narrow a passage that it was impossible for either 
of them to avoid the other. John seeing the murderer, drew 
his sword, and was going to dispatch him. But the other 
lighting from his horse, feU upon his knees, and with his arms 
across, besought him by the passion of Jesus Christ, who suf- 
fered on that day, to spare his life. The remembrance of 
Christ, who prayed for his murderers on the cross, exceedingly 
affected the young nobleman ; and meekly raising the suppli- 
cant from the ground with his hand, he said : " I can refuse 
nothing that is asked of me for the sake of Jesus Christ. I not 
only give you your life, but also my friendship for ever. Pray 
for me that God may pardon me my sin." After embracing 
each other they parted, and John went forward on his road till 
he came to the monastery of St. Minias,* of the holy Order of 
St. Bennet. Going into the church, he offered up his prayers 
before a great crucifix, begging with many tears and extxaor- 
dinary fervour that God would mercifully grant him the pardon 
. of his sins. Whilst he continued his prayer the cruciflx mira- 
culously bowed its head to him, as it were to give him a token 
how acceptable the sacrifice of his resentment, and hia sincere 

* St. Minias was a Roman soldier who suffered martyrdom at ilorencs 
onder Decius. See Mart. Bom. 13 Oct. 



July 12,] st. john gualbert, a. 12A 

repentance were. The divine grace made such deep impres- 
sions on his heart, that rising from his devotions he cast him- 
self at the feet of the abbot, earnestly begging to be admitted 
to the religious habit. The abbot was apprehensive of hia 
father's displeasure ; but at length was prevailed upon with 
much ado to allow him to live in the community in his secular 
habit. After a few days John cut off his hair himself, and put 
on a habit which he borrowed. His father, at this news of the 
step his son had taken, hastened to the monastery, and stormed 
and complained dreadfully; till after some time seeing the 
steadiness of his son's resolution, and hearing his reasons and 
motives, he was so wpll satisfied, that he gave him his blessing, 
and exhorted him to persevere in his good purposes. 

St. John devoted him^lf to the exercises of his new state in 
the most perfect dispositions of a true penitent. He was most 
exact in every religious observance. He subdued his body with 
much fasting and watching; never gave way to idleness, 
but kept himself day and night employed almost in continual 
prayer. His corporal austerities he animated with a perfect 
interior spirit of penance, or desire of punishing sin in himself, 
the more powerfully to move God to compassion and mercy 
towards him ; and he endeavoured by them to facilitate the sub- 
jection of his passions, which victory he completed by a watch* 
fulness over the motions of his own heart, and heroic acts of all 
virtues, especially meekness and humility. But assiduous and 
humble prayer and meditation were the principal means by 
which this wonderful change was effected in all the affections 
of his soul, so that he became entirely a new man. Nothing 
can have so prevalent a power to still the agitation of passion 
in the breast ; nothing is so fit to induce a smooth and easy 
flow, and a constant evenness of temper, as a frequent appli- 
cation to the throne of grace. This presence of the mind with 
the Lord is an absence from the body, or from the tumult of 
carnal passions* The pure and serene tranquillity that springs 
up in the soul by an intercourse with heaven, shows that here 
she is. nearest the centre of her true happiness, where earthly 
things lose all their power of attraction. The very preparation 
of the heart to wait upon God in this solemn exeitise is of ad- 
mirable use to remove that corruption which inflames the pas^ 
voju va I 



126 ST. JOHN CrAXJJEST, A. [JCJLT 12. 

•ioiif. Especially a lively eease of God's infinite greatness, and 
of our littleness and infirmities, poweifwDy impressed on our 
minds by assidnous prayer, soon brings ns to a conviction that 
pride is the root of all oar disorders ; and enables ns to discover 
its disguises, and to banish it out of our souk. By fidelity and 
perseverance St. John obtained the victory over himself, and 
became most eminent in meekness, humility, silence, obe- 
dience, modesty, and patience. 

When the abbot died our saint wa^ earnestly entreated by 
the greater part of the monks to accept that dignity ; but his 
consent could by no means be extorted. Not long after, he left 
this house with one companion, and went in quest of a closer 
solitude. He paid a visit to the hermitage of Camoldoli ; and 
having edified himself with the example of its fervent inhabi- 
tants, he proceeded further to an agreeable shady valley covered 
with willow trees, commonly called Vallis-Umbrosa, in the 
diocess of Fiesoli, half a day^s journey from Florence, in Tus- 
cany. He found in that place two devout hermits, with whom 
he and his companion concerted a project to build themselves a 
small monastery of timber and mud^waUs, and to form together 
a little community, serving God according to the primitive au- 
stere rule and spirit of the Order of St Bennet. The abbess 
of St. Hilary gave them the ground on which they desired to 
build, and when the monastery was finished the bishop of Pa- 
derboin, who attended the Emperor Henry III. into Italy, con* 
secrated the chapeL Pope Alexander II. in 1070 approved 
this new Order, together with the rule in which the saint added 
certain particular constitutions to the original rule of Su Bennet. 
From this confirmation is dated the foundation of the Order of 
Vallis-Umbrosa. St. John was chosen the first abbot, nor was 
he able to decline that dignity. He gave his monks a habit of 
an ash colour; and settled among them retirement, silence, 
disengagement of their hearts from all earthly things, the most 
austere practice of penance, profound humility, and the most 
universal charity. 

Though most humble and mild, he severely reproved the 
least tepidity or sloth in others ; for the virtue of meekness is 
not further removed firom intemperate anger which douds or 
dethrones reason^ than from a vicious defect or tamenens and 



July 12.] st. jodk 6Cai.bcbt, a. 127 

stupidity which beholds vice with indiSerence. Gk)d has i^oni- 
mitted to every man a kind of trust and guardianship of virtue, 
whose rights we are obliged to maintain in proportion to our 
power not only by example, but also by advice, exhortation, 
and reproof, as often as it is reasonable ; and he who regards 
the sins of others with a careless unconcernedness, makes him- 
self accountable for them when it is in his power to prevent 
them. Superiors especially lie under the most grievous obliga- 
tions to check and chastise the irregularities and faults of those 
under their immediate care and inspection. Our saint feai^ed 
no less the danger of too great lenity and forbearance than thnt 
of harshness ; and was a true imitator both of the mildness and 
zeal of the Jewish legislator, whom the Holy Ghost calls " the 
meekest of all men upon the face of the earth.'* St John was 
himself a perfect model of all virtues, and tender and compas- 
sionate towards all, especially the sick. This compassion for 
them he learned by his own perpetual infirmities, and weakness 
of stomach. Such was his humility that he would never be pro- 
moted even to minor Orders, never presumed to approach 
nearer the altar than was necessary to receive the holy commu- 
nion, and never would open the church door, but always prayed 
one in minor Orders to open it for him. He was verjr jsealous 
for holy poverty, and would not allow any monasteries to be 
built in a costly and smnptuous manner, thinking such edifices 
not agreeable to a spirit of poverty. He founded the monastery 
of St. Salti, that of Moscetta, that of Passignano, another at 
Rozzuolo, and another at Monte Salario. He reformed some 
other monasteries, and left about twelve houses of his Order at 
his death. Besides monks he received lay-brothers, who were 
exempt from choir and silence, and employed in external offices. 
This is said to be the first example of such & distinction ; but it 
was soon imitated by other Orders. The saint's charity to the 
poor was not less active than his love for holy poverty. He 
would have no poor person sent from his door without an abns, 
and often emptied all the granaries and stores of his monas- 
teries in relieving them. In a great dearth he supplied, some- 
times by miracle, the multitudes of poor people who flocked to 
his monastery of Bozzuolo. The saint was endowed with the 
spirit of prpphecy, and by his prayers restored many sick per- 



*28 ST. JOHN GUAJ.BTIUT, A. [JULY 12, 

sons to penect health. The holy Pope Leo IX. went to Pas- 
signano on purpose to see and converse with this holy man. Ste 
phen IX. and Alexander IL had the greatest esteem €or him. 
This latter testifies that the whole country where he lived owed 
to his zeal the entire extinction of simony. The holy man a( 
length fell sick of a sharp fever at Fassignano. He called for 
all the abhots and superiors of his Order, and telling them he 
was soon to leave them, strongly exhorted them to watch vigi- 
lantly over the most exact observance of their rule, and to 
maintain peace and fraternal charity. After this, .having most 
devoutly received the last sacraments, he died happily on the 
12th of July, in 1073, being seventy-four years old. Pope 
Celestine IIL having caused juridical informations to be taken 
concerning his virtues and miracles, solemnly enrolled him 
among the saints in the year 1193. 

The eminent degree of penance and sanctity to which the 
divine grace raised this saint, was the fruit of his mildness in 
forgiving an injury. Chiist not only commands us to pardon 
all offences, but has recommended this precept to us with his 
expiring breath, with his head crowned with thorns and his 
hands stretched out for us. We renounce the glorious title of 
being his disciples if, whilst we behold him hanging on the 
cross, and hear his last prayers, we trample on his sacred law, 
{^nd harbour malice in our hearts against a brother whom our 
dying Redeemer conmiands us to forgive for his sake. Can we 
be angry with him who is by so many sacred ties our brother, 
the living son and member of our conmion Bedeemer and Fa^ 
ther, and whom we expect to be the associate of our happiness 
for all eternity ? We owe infinitely more to Christ than any 
brother can owe to us : the least venial sin is an immense debt. 
Our Divine Master not only conjures us to foi^ve our brother 
for His sake, but also makes it our own infinite interest so to 
do, promising to pardon us our immense debts in the same man- 
ner as we pardon others. Shall we base worms who have no- 
thing to boast of before men only our having concealed from 
them our baseness and ignominy ; and to whom the most cruel 
outrages from creatures would be too nuld a treatment^ consi- 
dering our sins ; shall we, I say, complain of injuries which we 
ought to receive with patience and joy as the easy means of 



JOLY 13.] ST. EUGENIUS, B. &C. CC. 129 

cancelling our own sins, and procuring for ourselves the greatest 
graces and mercy ? 

SS. NABOR AND FELIX, MM. 

They suffered at Milan under Maximian Herculeus about the 
year 304. Their bodies were first interred without the walls 
of the city, but afterwards brought into it, and deposited in a 
place where a church was built over their tomb, to which great 
multitudes of people resorted with wonderful devotion, as Pau- 
linus testifies in his life of St. Ambrose. In the same church 
St. Ambrose discovered the relics of SS. Gervasius and Prota- 
sius, as himself relates in hii letter to his sister Marcellina. 
The people continued to venerate the relics of SS. Nabor and 
Felix with the same ardour of devotion, as that holy doctor as- 
sures us.(l) They are still honoured in the same church, 
which at present bears the name of St. Francis. See Solier the 
BoUandist, t. 3, Julij. p. 280. 



JULY XIIL 

ST. EUGENIUS, BISHOP OF CARTHAGE, AND HIS 
COMPANIONS, CC. 

From Victor YitensiB, Hist. Peniec. Vandal. I. 2 and 3. See Tillemont, 
t. 16. Ceillier, t. 15, p. 206. Rivet. Hist. Lit. de la Fr. t. p. 38. 
Buinart, &c. 

A. D. 505. 

f 

The Roman provinces in Africa were for a long time one of 
the richest and most noble portions of the empire. The Car- 
thaginian barbarism and perfidy had given place to the most 
flourishing reign of the sciences, arts, and religion. The nobles 
of this country were all princes, and for riches and state, seemed 
to vie with kings ; its peace seemed on every side secure. But 
the strongest cities and empires are often nearest a fall ; they 
are founded, to be again sooner or later torn to pieces. Every 
state has even within itself the seeds of its own destruction ; 
these will occasion the dissolution of every body politic no less 

Cl) In Luc. 1. 7, c. 13. 



130 «T. EUGENICS, B. &C, CC. [JUL.T 13. 

certainlj than ih» internal weakness of the animal body must 
bring it to a fatal period. This was the condition of the Boman 
empire in its decline, when its rulers, to preserve Italy which 
they regarded as its heart or head, abandoned its extremities to 
the Goths and Vandals. At a time when A&ici^ thought of no 
danger, in the reign of the emperor Yalentinian the III. in 428, 
Genseric, king of the Vandals and Alans, having lately made a 
settlement in part of Spain,* passed into thia cqujiI^, and in a 

• Though Pliny and Procopius pretend that the Vandals were of the 
•ame extraction with the Goths, the contrary is demonstrated by the 
learned F. Daniel Farlati, (Illyrici Sacri, t. 2, p. 1308. Yenetiis 1753,) 
and by Jos. Assemani (in Calend. de Orig. Slavor. par. 2, c. 5, t. 1, p. 
297.) And their language, manners, and religion were entirely different. 
The flame arguments show that they diifi^red also from the Slavi, Huus, 
and original Wlnidi or Yenedi, this last being a Sarmatian, and the two 
others Scythian nations. The Vandals are placed by Jomandes and Dio 
(i. 65,) on the German coast of the Baltic sea, in the present Prussia and 
Pomerania ; they thence extended themselves to the sourcee of the Elbe, 
in the mountains of Silesia. They were afterwards removed near the 
Danube, in the neighbourhood of the Marcomanni, in the reigns of An- 
toiiius, Aurelian, and Probus. In the fifth century they made an excur- 
sion into Gaul : and being there repulsed, crossed the Pyrensean moun- 
tains with the Alani, who were the original Massaget» from Mount 
Caucasus, and beyond the Tanais, as Ammianus Marcellinus testifies. 
About the year 400, in the reign of Honorius, the Alani settled them- 
selves in Lusitania, and the Vandals under King Gunderic, in Gallicia, 
(which then comprised both the present Gallicia and Old Castile,) and in 
BsBtica, which from them was called Vandalltla, and corruptly Anda. 
lusia. See St. Isidore and Idatius, in their chronicles. Salvian, 1. 7, p. 
137. St August, ep. 8, ad Victor.) The Vandals were baptized in the 
Catholic faith about the time when ihey crossed the Rhine ; but were 
afterwards drawn into Aiianism, probably by some alliance with the 
Arian Goths, and out of hatred to the Romans. Idatius says, that com- 
mon fame attributed the Arian perversion of the Vandals to King Gen. 
seric, who succeeded his brother Gunderic in 428, and was a man ex- 
l^erienced in all the arts of policy and war. Count "Boniface, lieutenani 
of AfHca, seeing his life threatened by Aetius (who, with the title of 
Magister Militite» governed the empire for the Empress Pladdia, r^ent 
for he? son Valentinian.) inviled the Vandals out of Spain to his aansU 
nnce. Genseric, with a powerful army, passed the strait which divides 
Africa troai Spain, in May, 429; and though Boniface was then returned 
Tv) his duty, the barbarian everywhere dcdfi^ated ^e RomaBs, besieged 
liippo during fourteen months ; and though he waa obliged by a fiMnine 
to retire, he returned soon after and took that strong fortress. The 
Emperer Vstonlinian, in 4S5» by treaty yielded up to him all his ccm. 
i^uesta in Africa. Genserio soon broke the truce, and in 439 took Car- 
thage, and drove the Romans out of all Africa. In 455, being invited 
by the Empress Eudoxia to revenge the murder of Valentiniau on Maxi- 
mus, he plundered Rome during fifteen days. Though thai city had 
l^een vavi^eed by Alaric the Goth In 400, whilst Honoriiis was emperor, 
the Vandal found and carried off an immense booty: and among other 



JUXT 13.~j ST. EUGSKIUSy B. &C. CC. 131 

short time became master of those fertile provijices. This poli- 
tic barbarian king kept great, armies perpetnaUj prepared for 
any expedition, by ivhich he prevented the vigilance of his ene- 
siies. and astonished all the world with the rapidity of his enter- 
prises. The Yandflls, who were mostly Christians J[)ut infected 
with the Arian herei^, laid the whole country waste by fire 
and sword, plondered all places, even chnrches and monaste* 
ries ; burned aliye two bishops, and tortured others to extort 
from them the treasures of their churohes ; razed the public 
buildings at Carthage, and banished Quodvultdeus, bishop of 
that city, with many others. But in 454, at the request of the 
emperor Yalentinian, Genseric allowed the Catholics to choose 
a bishop of Carthage, and SU Deogratias was raised to that dig- 
nity, who died soon after Genseric was returned from the plun- 
der of Rome. The persecution growing hotter, many suffered 
torments for the faith, and several received the crown of mar- 
tyrdom. The Arians, by a sacrilege never before heard of^ 
made themsdves shirts and breeches of the altar-cloths, and at 
Tinuzuda spilt and scattered the body and blood of Christ on 
the pavement* Catholics being by an edict disqualified for 
bearing any office in the government^ Armogastes, a nobleman 
who held an honourable post in the household of Theodoric the 
king's son, was condemned by the tyrant tp keep cattle. Gen- 
things, the gold and brass with which the capitol was inlaid, and the 
YMsels of the Jewish temple at Jerusalem, which Titus had brought to 
Bome^ These Justinian, when he had recovered Africa, caused to be 
brought to Constantinople, whence he caused them to be removed 
and placed in certain churches at Jerusalem, as Frocopius relates* 
Borne was again twice plundered by Totila in 546 and 549. The 
Vandals, by their transmigrations into Spain and Africa, soon after 
ceased to be a nation in Germany, as Jomandes and Frocopius testify. 
Euricos, king of the Visigoths, io Languedoc, in 468, invading Spain, 
conqiiered most of the territories which the Bomans still possessed there, 
and all the provinces which the Vandals had seized. So that by the ex- 
tinction of the empire <^ the Vandals in Africa under Jusdnian, the 
name of that potent and furious nation was lost : though Frederic, the 
first king of Frussia, in 1701, was for some time very desirous rather to 
take the title of king of the Vandals. The cavalry of the ancient Van. 
dais fought chiefly with the sword and lance, and were unpractised in 
the distant combat. Their bow.men were undisciplined, and fought on 
foot like the Gothic. See Frocopius. 

* TintLzud» tempore quo sacramenta Bei populo porrigebantnr, intro. 
euntes cum furore (Ariani) Corpus Christ! et Sanguinem pavimento 
sparsenmt, et illud poUutis pedibus calcaverunt. St. Viot. Vitensis, L 
1, p. 17. 



132 ST. EUGENIUS, B, &C. CC. [JULY 13. 

seric dying after a reign of thirty-seven years, was succeeded 
by his son Huncric,- a more barbarous persecutor than his father 
had ever been. 

The episcopal see of Carthage had remained vacant twenty- 
four years, ;^hen in 481, Huneric permitted the Catholics on 
certain conditions to choose one who should fill it. The people 
impatient to enjoy the comfort of a pastor, pitched upon Euge- 
nius, a citizen of Carthage, eminent for his learning, zeal, piety, 
and prudence ; and such was his deportment in this dignity, ' 
that he was venerable to the very heretics, and so dear to the 
Catholics that every one of them would have thought it a hap- 
piness to lay down his life for him. His charities to the dis- 
tressed were excessive, especially considering his poverty. But 
he always found resources for their necessities in the hearts of 
his people ; and he refused himself every thing that he might 
give all tb the poor. When others put him in mind that he 
ought to reserve something for his own necessaries, his answer 
was : ^' If the good pastor must lay down his life for his flock, 
can it be excusable for me to be solicitous for the necessities of 
my body ?*• He fasted every day, and often allowed himself 
only a most slender evening refection of bread and water. His 
yirtue gained him the respect and esteem even. of the Arians ; 
but at length envy and blind zeal got the ascendant in their 
breast^, an^i the king sent him an order never to sit in the epis- 
copal throne, preach to the people, or admit into his chapel any 
Vandals among whom several were Catholics. The saint boldly 
answered the messenger,. that the laws of Gt>d commanded him 
not to shut the doors of his church to any who desired to serve 
him in it. Huneric, enraged at this answer, persecuted the 
Catholics many ways, especially the Vandals who had embraced 
the faith. He commanded guards to be placed at the doors of 
the Catholic churches, who when they saw any man or woman 
going in clothed in the habit of the VandiEds, struck them on 
the head with short staffs jagged and indented, which being 
twisted into their hair, and drawn l^ack with great violence^ 
tore off the hair and skin together. Some lost their eyes by 
this means, and others died with the extreme pain ; but many 
lived a long time after. Women with their heads flayed in this 
manner, were publicly led through the streets, with a crier 



July 13.] st. eugenius, b. &c. cc. 133 

going before iiem to show them to the people. But this barba- 
Fons nsage did not cause any one to forsake the true religion. 
Next> the tyrant deprived the Catholics who were at court of 
their pensions, and sent them to work in the country. He also 
ordered that none should be admitted to bear any office in his 
palace, or any public charge who was not an Arian. He after- 
wards turned them out of their houses, stripped them of all 
their wealth, and sent them to Sicily or Sardinia. After this 
* his persecution fell on all Catholics. One edict followed ano- 
ther against them, and the doud thickened every day over their 
heads. Many nuns were so cruelly tortured that several died 
on the rack. Great numbers of bishops, priests, deacons, and 
eminent Catholic la^en were banished to the number of four 
thousand nine hundred and seventy-six, all of whom the tyrant 
sent into a desert, where they were fed with barley like horses. 
This desert was filled with scorpions and venemous serpents ; 
but they did not destroy any of the servants of God. The people 
followed their bishops and priests with lighted tapers in their 
hands, and mothers carried their little babes in their arms, and 
laid them at 4he feet of the confessors, all crying out with tears : 
" Going yourselves to your crowns, to whom do you leave us ? 
Who will baptize our children ? Who will impart to us the 
benefit of penance, and discharge us from the bonds of sins by 
the favour of reconciliation and pardon ? Who wiU bury us 
w^ith solemn supplications at our death ? By whom will divine 
sacrifices be made ?"* 

The bishop Eugenius was spared: in the first storm, probably 
that the inhabitants of the capital might seem to be somewhat 
considered. But in May 483, the king sent him a summons re- 
quiring the Catholics, whom he called Homoousians, to hold a 
conference or disputation with his Arian bishops at Carthage 
on the 1st day of February ensuing. Eugenius answered, the 
terms were not equal, seeing their enemies were to be judges ; 
and that as it was the common cause of all churches, other 
foreign churches ought to ^ invited and consulted, *' especially 

* Qui nobis poenitentise munns collaturi sunt, et reconciUationis indnl- 
gentia obstrictos peccatoram yinculis solnturi? A quibos divinis sacri. 
fi ciis ritus est exhibendus consiietus ? Yobiscum et nos libeat pergere^ 
0i liceret. S. Victor Vit. 1. 2, p. 33. 



134 ST. EUGEKIUS, B, &C. CC [JULT 13. 

the church of Rome, which is the heed of all churches."* About 
that time one Felix, who had been long blind, addressed him* 
self to St. Eugenius desiring him to pray that he might recover 
his sight, sa3ring he had been admonished by a vision so to do« 
The bishop showed great reluctance and confusion, alleging 
ihat he was a base sinner ; but at length, after blessing the 
font for the solemn administration of baptism on the Epiphany, 
he said to the blind man : '^I have told you that I am a sinner, 
and the last of all men ; but I pray God that he show you mercy 
according to your faith, and restore to you your sight," Then 
he made the sign of the cross on his eyes, and the blind man 
saw : the whole city was witness to the triumph pf the faith. 
The king sent for Felix, and examined hioiself all the circum- 
stances of the miracle, which he found too evident to be called 
in question. However, the Arian bishops told him that Euge- 
nius had performed it by recourse to art magic. The Catholics 
made choice of ten disputants for the conference, which was 
opened on the 5th of February. Cyrila, patriarch of the Arians, 
was seated on a throne ; the Catholics who were standing, 
asked who were the commissaries to take down in writing what 
should pass in the disputation ; and were answered that Cyrila 
would perform that office. The Catholics asked by what autho* 
rity he claimed the jurisdiotioQ and rank of patriarch? The 
Arians not being able to produoe any sufficient warrant for his 
usurpation, filled the hall with noise and tumult, and obtained 
an order that every lay Catholic there present should receive a 
hundred bastinadoes. Cyrila sought various pretences to defer 
the conference. The Catholics, however presented a written 
confession of their faith. This takes up the whole third book 
of Victor's history, though he has only inserted the first part 
in which the eonsubstantiality of God the Son is proved from 
the scriptures. The second part, which confirmed the scone from 
the writings of the fathers, is lost This confession seems to 
have been drawn up by St Eugenius, to whom Grennadius 
ascribes a confession of faith against the Arians^f 

* Scribun ego fratribua mas ut veniant eoepi8coi4 mel, qui Tobis nobis- 
eum fldem communem nostram valeant demonstrare, et prsecipue ecdesia 
Bomaxuk, qusB caput est omniiiin ecdesiarum. Yictor Vit. 1. 2, p. 38. 

t In it the Catholics appealed to the tradition of the imiyersal Church • 



July i3.j st. eugenids, b. &c. cc. 135 

When this was read the Arians quarrelled that the orthodox 
took the Dame of Catholics, though this was given them by the 
whole world, even by the heretics themselves, as St. Austin 
observed a little before this time in that very country. Upon 
this, however, the Arians abrupt^ broke up the conference, 
and the king, on the 25th of February, in 484, published a 
severe edict for a general persecution, which he had already 
prepared for that purpose. By this all the Catholic clergy 
were banished out of towns, and forbidden to perform any 
functions, even in the country ; all Catholics were declared in- 
capable of inheriting, or disposing, of any estates, real or per- 
sonal, with other such articles. Executioners were despatched 
to all parts of the kingdom, and mauy Cathpljics w^re put to 
barbarous deaths, and many more inhumanly tormented. One 
Dionysia, after having been herself cruelly scourged, seeing 
her son Majoricus, a tender youth, tremble at the sight of the tor- 
ments prepared for him, she looked on him with a stem coun- 
tenance, and said : ^* Remember, son, w^ were baptized in the 
name of the Trinity, and in the bosom of our mother the 
church." The young man, eneouraged by these words, suffered 
martyrdom with undaunted resolution, and his mother buried 
him within her own house, that she might Qvery day offer to 
the holy Trinity her prayers over his grave, in the lively hope 
of a glorious resurrection with him at the last day. Her cousin 
Emilias, her sister Dativa, and innumerable others in different 
parts of Africa received the like crowns. At Typasus, in 
Mauritania Caesariensis, certain Catholics who had assisted at 
the celebration of the divine mysteries in a private house, were 
informed against ; and by the king's order bud their tongues 
plucked out, and their right hands cut off; yet they spoke as 
well as ever, as St. Victor Vltensis, an eye-witness, assures 
us.(l) He says, Eeparatus, a subdeacon, one of this number, 
was entertained when he wrote, in the court of the Emperor 

(1) L. 5, p. 76. 



*' Htec est fides nostra, erangelicig et apostdicis tradiUombu8 atque auc 
toritate firmata, et omnium quss in miindo sunt Catholicarum ecc&aiarum 
bocietate fandata, in qua nos per gratiani Dei omnipotentis pcrmbiieio 
usque ad finem vitae hujus confidimus." Victor Vit. 1. 3, p. 62. 



136 ST. £U0SKIU8, B. »Sbc. CC* [JULY 13 

Zena, at Constantinople, and was there highly honoured, es- 
pecially hy the empress ; and that, tho!]igh entirely deprived of 
his tongue, he spoke gracefully, and without the least defect or 
imperfection. ^Eneas, of Gaza, a platonic philosopher, who 
was then at Constantinople, and wrote in 533,(1) says he him- 
self had seen them in that city, and had heard them speak dis~ 
tinctly ; and not being able to believe his own ears, he had exa- 
mined their mouths, and seen that their tongues were plucked 
out to the very roots, so that he wondered they could have 
survived so cruel a torment Procopius, who wrote soon after, 
says also(2) that he had seen these persons at Constantinople, 
and had heard them speak freely, without feeling any thing ot 
their punishment; but that two of them, by falling into a 
grievous sin of the flesh, lost the use of their speech, which they 
had till then enjoyed. 

The tyrant wreaked his impotent vengeance on many others, 
especially on Vandals who had been converted to the Catholic 
faith; but was liot able to overcome their heroic constancy. 
The streets of Carthage were filled witl^ spectacles of his 
cruelty ; and one was there meeting continually some without 
hands, others without eyes, nose, or ears ; others whose heads 
appeared sunk in between their shoulders, by having been hung 
up by the hands on the tops of houses for sights to the people. 
Above four himdred and sixty bishops were brought to Car- 
thage, in oi-der to be sent into banishment : of this number 
eighty-eight died imder great hardships at Carthage, some few 
made their escape, and the rest were banished. St. Eugeniu^ 
after having long encouraged others to the conflict, was him- 
self at length on a sudden canied into exile, without being al- 
lowed to take leave of his friends. He found means, however, 
to write a letter to his flock, which St. Gregory of Tours has 
preserved.(3) In it he says : " I with tears beg, exhort, and 
conjure you by the dreadful day of judgment, and the awful 
light of the coming of Christ, that you hold fast the Catholic 
faith. Preserve the grace of the holy baptism, and the unction 

(1) JEneaa, Gas. Dial, de Animarom InunortaUtate et Corporis Be- 
Buxrectione, p. 415. 

(2) Procop. de Bello Vandal. 1. 1, c. 8. 
<3} Hist, f rauc. 1. 2. p. 4ii 



July 13. J st. eugenius, b. &c. cc. 137 

of tbe chrism. Let no man born again of water return to the 
water." This he mentions, because the Arians in Africa, like 
the Donatists, rebaptized those who came over to their sect. 
St. Eugenius protests to his flock that if thej remain constant, 
no distance nor death could separate him from them in spirit ; 
but that he was innocent of the blood of those who should pe- 
rish, and that this his letter would be read before the tribunal 
of Christ at the last daj for the severer condemnation of such 
base apostates. " If I return to Carthage," says he, " I shall 
see you in this life ; if not, I shall meet you in the other. 
Pray for us, and fast ; fasting and alms have never failed to 
move God to mercy. Above all things, remember that we are 
not to fear those who can only kill the body." 

We have a catalogue of all the bishops of the provinces of 
Afi^ca who came to the conference, and were sent into banish- 
ment ;(1) namely, fifty-four of the proconsular province, one 
hundred and twenty-five of Numidia, one hundred and seven 
of -the province of Byzacena, one hundred and twenty of the 
province of Mauritania Caesariensis, forty-four from the pro- 
vince of Sitifi, ^\G from that of Tripolis, besides ten from Sar- 
dinia and other places; in all four hundred and sixty-four 
bishops, of which number eighty-eight died at Carthage, before 
their departure into exile, forty-six were banished to Corsica, 
three hundred and three to other places, and twenty-eight made 
their escape. St. Eugenius was carried into the uninhabited 
desert country in the province of Tripolis, and committed to 
the guard of Antony, an inhuman Arian bishop, who treated 
him with the utmost barbarity. The saint added to his suffer- 
ings voluntary austerities, wore a rough hair-shirt, lay on the 
ground, and passed great part of the night in prayer and tears. 
When he was afflicted with a palsy, Antony, because vinegar 
was contrary to his distemper, obliged him to drink it in large 
quantities. Tet God was pleased to restore his servant to his 
health. It is observed by our historian, that the Arian bishops 
were all cruel persecutors, and went through the cities and pro- 
vinces, filling all places with scenes of horror, rebaptizing per- 
sons by force and violence, scourging, mangling, torturing; 
and banishing even women and children. The fifth book of 

(1) Buln. Hist. Persec Vandal, part 2, c. 8. Notit. Afric. 



l.'^B 8T. EroiiXiis, B. &c. IT. [Jlly 13. 

the iiiBtory of this persecution is fdled with examples. The 
apostates signalized themselves above others by the cruelties 
which they exercised upon the orthodox. Elpidophorus, one of 
this number, was appointed judge at Carthage to condemn the 
more zealous to be tortured. Muritta, the deacon who had as- 
sisted when he was baptized in the bosom of the Catholic church, 
being brought before him, took with him the chrismale or \7hite 
garment, with which at the time he received the apostate com- 
ing out of the font he had clothed him, as an emblem of that 
innocence which he engaged himself to preserve always un- 
spotted ; and producing it before the whole assembly, he said : 
" This robe will accuse you when the judge shall appear in ma- 
jesty at the last day. It will bear testimony against you to 
your condemnation,"* This relation is gathered from Saint 
Victor, bishop of Vita, in the province of Byzacena ; who be- 
ing banished by King Huneric for the faith in 487, retired to 
Constantinople, and wrote (probably in that city) in five books, 
the lystory of the Vandalic persecvttion.f 



* Hsac Bunt linteamina quie te aocusabunt cum majestas yenerit judi- 
caatis. Vict. Vit. 1. 5, c. 78. 

f He doses this work by the following^ supplication to the angels and 
saints : ** Succour us, O angels of mj Grod ; look down on Africa, once 
flourishing in its numerous churches, but now left desolate and cast 
away. Intercede, O patriarchs ; pray, O holy prophets ; succour us, O 
apostles, who are our advocates. You, especially, O blessed Peter, why 
are you silent in the necessities of your flock ? You, O blessed apostle 
Paul, behold what the Arian Vandals do, and how your sons groan in 
captivity. O all you holy apostles, petition for us. Pray for us though 
wicked ; Christ prayed even for his persecutors," &c. Adeste angeli Dei 
mei, et videte Africam totam dudum tantanim ecclesiarum cuneis ful- 
tam, nunc ab omnibus desolataro, sedentem viduam et abjectam — ^Depre- 
camini patriarchss : orate sancti prophets ; estote apostoli suffragatores 
vjus, Pnecipue tu Petre, quare siles pro ovibus tuis? — ^Tu S. Paule, 
gentium magister, cognosce quid Vandali faciunt Ariani, et filii tui ge- 
niunt lugendo captivi. Victor Vit. Hist. Peis. VandaL sub fin^oi. The 
history of St. Victor is written with spirit and correctness, in a plain 
affecting style, intermixed with an entertaining {wignancy of satire, and 
e.lifj'ing henuc sentiments and examples of piety. The author is bo- 
soured in Ute Roman Martyrology among the holy confessors on the 23d 
of August, tiiough the time and place of his death are uncertain. He 
ilouiished in the middle of the fifth century. His history of the Van- 
dalle persecution has run through several editions : that of Beatus Ehe- 
nanus at Basil, in 15S5, is the &rst : Peter Chifflet gave one at Dijon in 
1064 : but that of Dom Ruinart at ParU, in 1694, is the most oomplete. 
It was published in £nglish in IG05. The best French translation is that 
of Ainaa d*AndiUy . 



July 13.] st. ecgenius, b. (S:c. cc. 139 

St. Victor relates that •iluneric, the great persecutor of tb« 
church, died miseral^ty, being devoured by worms, in Decem- 
ber, 484, having reigned almost eight years. Nor was he ano- 
ceeded, as he had earnestly desired, by his son Hilderic , but 
by Gontamund, a nephew, whom the maturity of his age ren- 
dered better able to bear the burden of the state. This prince, 
in the year 488, which was the fourth of his reign, recalled St. 
Eugenius to Carthage, and at his request opened the churches 
of the Catholics, and permrtted the exiled priests also to return. 
Gontamund died in 496, and his brother^ Thradimund, was 
called to the crown, of whom mention hath been made in the 
life of St. Fulgentius. Though this king often affected a show 
oi' moderation, he sometimes used the sword and every other 
violent measure to depress the cause of truth, which at other 
limes he pretended to seek after. But his inconstancy betrayed 
[ his want of sincerity. True virtue is steady, but the fool 

, changeth like the moon ; he who is governed by his passions is 

I every thing by fits, and if he one day pretend to condemn . his 

rices, he by relapses soon repents again of this very repen- 
f tance, which frequently springs rather from a disgust of sin, 

f than from any principle of true virtue. Thrasimund by this 

I levity or hypocrisy never deserved to arrive at the light of the 

true faith, and often persecuted its most holy champions, of 
which, among many others, the sufferings of St. Eugenius are 
an instance. St. Gregory of Tours relates(l) that by his au- 
thority the judges condemned our saint, one Longinus, and St. 
Vindemial, bishop of Capsa, in Africa, to be beheaded. St. 
Vindemial died by the sword ; but the tyrant commanded St. 
Eugenius to be led to the place of execution, and though he 
protested under the axe that he would rather lose his life than 
depart from the Catholic faith, he was again brought back to 
Carthage, and banished into Languedoc, which country was 
then subject to Alaric, king of the Visigoths, who was also an 
Arian. He died in his exile in a monastery which he built and 
governed at Viance, (since called St, Amaranth's, from the 
tomb of that martyr,) i^bout a mile from Albi. He passed to 
a better life in 505, on the 13th of July. King Hilderic after- 
wards recalled the surviving exiled prelates ; but peace was not 

(1) L. de Glor. Conf. c. 13. 



140 •. ST. EUGENIU8, B. &C. CC. [JULY 13. 

perfectly restored to that church before the year 534, when Be- 
lisarius, a general who was master of all the maxims of the first 
, Romans with regard to the art of war, vanquished Gelimer, 
the last Vandal king in Africa, and sent him prisoner to Con- 
stantinople.* 

The saints chose to suffer every temporal loss, torment, or 
death with which the world could threaten them rather than 
lose the holy treasure of faith. This gift is a light which 
shineth upon us(l) from God, to direct us amidst our darkness 
in the path to eternal life, as the pillar of fire conducted the 
Israelites through the wilderness. It is the seed, or rather the 
root of a spiritual life, and of every virtue that is meritorious 
of everlasting glory. " Faith is the solid foundation of all vir- 
tues," says St. Ambrose.(2) And in another place he cries 
out :(3) " faith, richer than all treasures ! more healing and 
sovereign than all medicines 1" Our faith, if true, must have 
three conditions, or qualities. 1. It must be firm, admitting 
no doubt or wavering ; ready to brave all dangers, torments, 
and death ; thus it filled the martyrs with joy under the most 
affrighting trials, and made them triumph over fires and the 
sword.(4) 2* It must be entire ; for the least wilful obstinate 
error concerning one article destroys the whole fabric of faith, 
by rejecting its motive, which is every where the same testi- 
mony of divine revelation. " You who believe what you please, 
and reject what you please, believe yourselves, or your own 

(1) 2 Peter i. 9. (2) S. Ambros. in Ps. 40. 

(3) L. 3, de Virgm. See S. Aug. Serm. 38, de Temp. 
(4)Hebr. X. 34; xi 37. 



* The Boman provinces, in Africa, soon after sunk again into barbar- 
ism and infideUtj, being oYerrun in 668 by the Saracens from Arabia 
and Syria, who in 669 took also Syracusa, and established a kingdom in 

Sicily and part of Italy. They planted themselves in Spain in 707. 

Muhavia, a general of the Sultan Omar, having routed Hormisdas Jes- 
degird, king of Persia, in 632, translated that monarchy from the line 

of Artaxerxes to the Saracens. This Omar conquered Egypt in 635 

He was second caliph after Mahomet, and successor of Abubeker ; and 
from his time the caliphs of Bagdat or Babylon were masters of Syria, 
Persia, and Egypt, till the two latter revolted; but notwithstanding 
various revolutions, all those countries still retain the Mahometan super- 
Btition. The Mahometans in Egypt shook off the yoke of the caliphs of 
Bagdat, and set up their own cidiphs at Cairo in 870, to whom the Moors 
in Africa adhered till the Turks became masters of Egypt. 



July 13.] 8T» turiaf, b. . ' 141 

f&nQj, rather than the gospel,'' as St Austin says. 3. Faith 
most be active, animated hj charity, fruitful in good works. 
A dead or a barren faith is compared by St. James to a ce^x^iss 
without a 60ul, and to the faith of the devils, who believe and ' 
tremble. How active and animated was faith in the souls of all 
the saints 1 the eminent virtues which we admire in them were 
cdl the fruit of their faith, and sprang from this root. With 
what care ought we to nourish and improve this holy seed in 
our breasts ? Gardeners cultivate most diligently those seeds 
which are most precious. 

ST. ANACLETUS, POPE, M. 

He governed the church after St. Clement nine years and three 
months, according to the Liberian pontifical, and according to 
another very old Vatican manuscript register ; but according to 
some later pontificals, twelve years and three months. He per- 
haps sat three years as vicar to St. Clement during his banish- 
ment, says BertL* Trajan raised the third persecution against 
the church whilst he was in the east in 107* In those difficult 
times St. Anacletus suffered much, and is styled a martyr in 
very ancient martyrologies. 

ST. TUEIAF, BISHOP OF DOL, IN BRITTANY, 

CALLED OFTEN TUBIAVE, SOMETIMES THIVISIAU, 

Was bom in the diocess of Yannes, in the neighbourhood of 

• The exact number of years that some of the popes sat before Victor 
In the year 200, cannot be determined with any degree of certainty, partly 
on account of faults of copies and the disagreement of later pontificals. — 
(SeePagi, the BolUndists, Tillemont, Orsi, Berti, &c.) St. Peter sat 
twenty-nye years: St, Linus seems to have held the seQ about eleven 
yean, St. Cletus twelve years, St. Clement about eleven years, and St. 
Anacletus nine, dying about llie year 109. The tradition and registers 
of the Roman church show Anacletus and Cletus to have been two Sitmct 
popes, as is manifest from the Liberian Calendar and several very ancient 
lista of the first popes quoted by Schelstrate (Diss. 2, Art. EccL c. 2.) 
and the Bollandists (ad 26 Apr.) from the old poem amon^^ the works of 
Teztullian, written about the time that he lived ; from the yery ancient 
Antiphonaries of the Vatican church, published by cardinal Joseph Tho« 
masius, and the old Martyrology which bore the name of St. Jerom, and 
was printed at Lucca by the care of Francis-Maria-Florentinius, a gen* 
tleman of that city ; which original authoritie: were followed by Ado, 
Usuard, &c The pontificals call Cletus a Eom;*^ by birth, Auacletu^.a 
Qrsdar, and native of Athens. i; 

VOU VII. 



142 ST. BON A VENTURE, B. D. [JdlY 14. 

the abbey of Ballon, near which Charles the Bald was defeated 
by the Britons it. 845 ; in which war this monastery seems to 
have* been destroyed. Turiaf went young to Dol, was instructed 
in piety and learning, and promoted to holy orders by St. Thi- 
armail, abbot of St. Samson's and bishq> of Dol. This prelate 
afterwards appointed him his vicar and chorepiscopns, and at 
his death, probably in 733, our saint was placed in that episco- 
pal chair. Admirable was the austerity of his life, his zeal, 
his charity, his watchfulness, his fervour in prayer, and his 
firmness in maintaining discipline. A powerful lord named Ri- 
/allon having committed many acts of violence, the bishop 
went to his castle at Lanncafrut, and by his strong remon- 
stranceft made him sensible of the enormity of his crimes. By 
the bishop's injunction he underwent a canonical penance 
during seven ye^rs, and repaired all injustices and oppressions 
by a sevenfold satisfaction. St. Turiaf died on the 13th of 
July, probably about the year 749, though even the age is not 
certain. In the wars of the Normans his relics were brought 
to Paris and are still kept in the abbey of St. Germain-des- 
Prezp The new Paris breviary mentions that dreadful fires 
have been sometimes miraculously extinguished by them. The 
life of St. Turiaf, written in the tenth century, is a confused 
eulogium, in which prodigies take place of facts. The notes of 
the Bollandists are incomparably more valuable than the text, 
ad 13 Jul. p. 614; see BarraU, Chronic. Lirin. t. 2, p. 186; 
Lobineau, Vies des SS. de Bret. p. 177 



JULY XIV. 
ST. BONAVENTURE, CARDINAL, 

BISHOP AND DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH. ' 

From his works, Wadding's Annals of the Friar Minors, the discourse of 
Octaylan de Maxinis for his canonization, and from his Life, written 
by Peter Galesini, by order of Sixtus Y. See also Boule, Raynaud, 
de Golonia, and the BoUandists. 

A. D. 1274. 

St. Bona venture, the great light and ornament of the holy 
Older of St Francis, for his extraordinary devotion, arden<^i 



•^Jcr-Y 14.] ST. BONAVEKTUHE, B B. 143 

charitj, and eminent skill in saered learning, is snrnamed the 
Seraphic 'Doctor. He was bom at Bagnaiea in Tuscany, in the 
year 1221, of pious parents, named John of Fidenza and Mary 
Ritelli^ He was cliristened by the name of John, but after- 
wards received that of Bonaventure, on the following occasion. 
In the fburfli year of his age he fell so dangerously sick that his 
life was despaiired of by the physicians. The mother in exces- 
sive grief had recourse to the Almighty physician by earnest 
prayer, and going into Umbria cast herself at the feet of St. 
Francis of Assisium, with many tears begging his intercession 
with God for the life of her son. Would Christians address 
themselves to God with an humble confidence in all their cor- 
poral necessities^ their afflictions would never fail to be turned 
into divine blessings. But their neglect of this duty deserves 
to be chastised by spiritual misfortunes, and often also by tem- 
poral disappointments without comfort or remedy. St. Francis 
was moved to compassion by the tears of the mother, and at 
his prayer ihe child recovered so perfect a state of health that 
he was never known to be sick from that time till the illness of 
whidi he died.(l) The glorious saint^ at whose petition God 
granted this farour, saw himself near the end of his mortal 
course, and foretelling the graces which the divine goodness 
prepared for this child, cried out in prophetic rapture ; O buona 
Ventura, that is, in Italian, Good luck. Whence the name of 
Bonaventura was given our saint The devout mother in gra- 
titude consecrated her son to God by a vow, and was careful to 
inspire into him from the cradle the most ardent sentiments of 
piety, and to inure him betimes to assiduous practices of self- 
denial, humility, obedience, and devotion. Bonaventure frcm 
his infancy entered upon a religious course, and appeared in- 
flamed with the love of God as soon as he was capable of know- 
ing him. His progress in his studies surprised his masters, but 
that which he made in the science of the saints, and in the 
practice of every virtue was far more extraordinary* It was 
his highest pleasure and joy to hear by how many titles he 
belonged to God, and he made it his most earnest study and 
endeavour to devote his heart with his whole strength to the 
divine service. 

(1) BaiUet in S. BoniV. Wadding, 4c. 



144 ST. BONA VENTURE, B. P. [JuLT 14# 

In 1243, being twenty-two years of age, he entered into the 
Order of St. Francis, and received the habit in the province of 
Rome from the hands of Haymo, an Englishman, at that time 
rrei.eral of the Order.* St Bonaventure mentions in his pro- 
logue to the life St. Francis, that he entered this state, and 
made his vows with extraordinary sentiments of gratitude for 
the preservation of his life through the intercession of St. 
Francis, resolving with the greatest ardour to serve God with 
his whole heart. Shortly after, he was sent to Paris to com- 
plete his studies under the celebrated Alexander of Hales, snr- 
named the Irrefragable Doctor.f After his death in 1245, St. 
Bonaventure continued his course under his successor, John of 
Rochelle. His penetrating genius was poised by the most ex- 
quisite judgment, by which, while he easily dived to the bottom 
of every subtle inquiry, he cut off whatever was superfluous, 
dwelling only on that knowledge which is useful and solid, or at 
least was then necessary to unravel the false principles and art- 
ful sophistry of the adversaries of truth. Thus he became a 
masterly proficient in the scholastic philosophy, and in the 
most sublime parts of theology. Whilst he referred all his 
studies to the divine honour and his own sanctification he was 
most careful not to lose the end in the means, and suffer his 
application to degenerate into a dissipation of mind and a vi- 
cious idle curiosity. This opens an avenue into the heart for 

• Haymo, who had taught divinity at Paris, and been sent by Gregory 
IX. nuncio to Constantinople, was employed by the same pope in revising 
the Roman breviary and its mbrics. He is not to be confounded with 
Haymo, the disciple of Kabanus Maurus, afterwards bishop of Halber- 
Btadt, in the ninth age, .whose Homilies, Comments on the Scriptures, 
and Abridgment of Ecclesiastical History are extant. His works are 
chiefly Centos compiled of scraps of fathers and other authors patched 
and joined together , a manner of writmg used by many from the seventh 
to the twelfth age, but calculated to propagate stupidity and dnlness, 
and to contract, not to enlarge or improve the gonius, which is opened by 
invention, elegance, and imitation ; but fettered by mechanical toils, as 
centos, acrostics, Ac. 

t Alexander of Hales, a native of Hales in Gloucestershire, after hav 
ing gone through the course of his studies in England, went to Paris, 
and there followed divinity and the canon law, and gained in them an ex- 
traordinary reputation. He entered into the Order of* Friars Minors, 
and died at Paris in 1245. His works discover a most subtle penetrating 
genius ; of which the principal is a Snmm or Commentary upon the four 
Books of the blaster of the Sentences, written by order of Innocent 17. 
0J3d a Yumm of Virtues 



, JOJ.Y 14.] ST. BONA VENTURE, B. »• 146 

8el£*conceit, jealousy, envy, and a total extinction of liie spirit of 
J)rayer, with a numberless train of other spiritual evils, which lay 
waste the affections of the soul, and banish thence the precious 
fruits of the Holy Ghost. To shun those rocks often fatal to 
.piety, he seemed npver to turn his attention from God, and by the 
earnest invocation of the divine light in the beginning of every 
action, and holy aspirations with which he accompanied all his 
studies, he may be said to have made them a continued prayer. 
When he turned his eyes to his book, they were swimming 
with tears of love and devotion excited by Ms assiduous medi- 
tation on the wounds of Christ, and his heart still continued to 
inflame its affections from that, its beloved object, which he 
seemed to read in every line. St. Thomas Aquinas coming one 
(lay to pay a visit to our saint, asked him in what books he had 
learned his sacred science. St. Bonaventure, pointing to hi^ 
crucifix before him, said : " This is the source of all my know- 
ledge. I study only Jesus Christ and him crucified.** 

Not content to make his studies in some sort a continuation 
of prayer, he devoted entirely to that heavenly exercise the 
greater part of his time, knowing this to be the key of divine 
graces and of spiritual life. For only the Spirit of God, as St. 
Paul teaches, can lead us into the secrets and designs of God, 
and engrave his holy maxims on our hearts. He alone can 
make himself known, as no other light can discover the sun to 
us but its own ; and it is in prayer that God communicates 
himself to us. He here enlightens the souls of his servants, and 
is their interior instructor. But, as St. Austin says, honey can- 
not be poured into a vessel that is full of wormwood : neither 
can this excellent grace or gift of prayer find place in a soul 
which is not first prepared to receive the sensible presence of 
the Holy Ghost by holy compunction, and by the practice of 
penance, humility, and self-denial. These virtues fitted the 
soul of our saint to be admitted to the chaste embraces of the 
heavenly bridegroom. Such was the innocence and purity in 
which he Uved, and so perfect a mastery he had obtained over 
his passions, that Alexander of Hales used to say of him, that 
he seemed not to have sinned in Adam. An eminent spirit of 
penance was the principal guardian of this grace of innocence. 
The austerities of St. Bonaventure were exoessivey yet suxidst 



146 8T. BONA VENTURE, B. D. [JCLT 14. 

his penitential tears a remarkable cheerfulness appeared al- 
ways in his countenance, which resulted from the inward peace 
of his soul. Himself lays down this maxim :(1) '' A spiritual 
joj is the greatest sign of the diyine grace dwelling in a souL" 

To his mortifications he added the practice of the greatest 
humiliations. In attending the sick he was particularly ambi- 
tious to serve them in the lowest and most humbling offices. 
In this charitable duty he seemed prodigal in his own life and 
health, and chose idways io be about those whose distempers 
were most loathsome or contagious and dangerous. He had no 
ejw to see anything in himself but faults and imperfections, 
and wonderful waa the care with which he endeavoured to con- 
ceal from others his extraordinary practices of virtue. When 
their rays broke through the veil of his humility, and ^hone 
forth to others, the saint in order to cast a shade over them 
before men, or at least to strengthen his own heart against the 
danger, and to indulge his love of abjection, embraced the 
greatest humiliations. He always regarded himself as the most 
ungrateful and the basest of sinners, unworthy to walk upon 
the earth, cr to breathe the air ; and these humble sentiments 
were accompanied with the deepest compunction, and abundant 
tears. This humility sometunes withheld him from the holy 
table notwithstanding the burning desires of his soul to be 
united daily afresh to the object of his love, and to approach 
the fountain of grace. But God was pleased by a miracle to 
overcome his fears, and to recompense his humility. '^ Several 
days had passed," say the acts of his canonization, " nor durst 
he yet presume to present himself at the heavenly banquet. 
But whilst he was hearing nutss, and meditating on the passion 
of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, to crown his humility and love, 
put into his mouth, by the ministry of an angel, part of the 
consecrated host, taken from the hand of the priest.'' By this 
precious favour his soul was drowned in a torrent of pure de- 
lights ; and from that time he was encouraged to approach with 
an humble confidence to the bread of angels which gives life 
and strength. 

From this time his communions were accompanied with over- 
flowing sweetness and consolations, and with raptures of divine 
(1) Speeul. Difldpl. p. 1, c. 3, 



July 14.] st. bona venture, b. ». 147 

joy and love. If in our communions we seem to receive, instead 
of torrents, scarce a small portion of heavenly grace, the reason 
is because our hearts are too narrow. The vessel which we 
bring is too small. If we dilated our souls by humility, burning 
desires, and love, we should receive, like the saints, an abundant 
supply of these living waters. St. Bonaventure prepared himr 
self to receive the holy order of priesthood by long fasts, humi- 
liations, and fervent prayer, that he might obtain in it an abimr 
dant measure of graces proportioned to so high a function. He 
considered that sacred dignity with fear and trembling, and the 
higher and more incomprehensible it appeared to him, so much 
the more did he humble himself when he saw himself invested 
with it As often as he approached the altar, the profound 
annihilation of himself, and the tender love with which he 
offered, beheld in his hands, and received into his breast, the 
Lamb without spot^ appeared by his tears, and his whole exterior. 
A devout prayer which he composed for his own use after mass, 
beginning with these words, Transfige duieissime dominey is 
recommended by the Church to all prie^ on that most solemn 
occasion. 

Bonaventure looked upon himself as called by the obligations 
of his priestly character to labour for the salvation of his neigh- 
bour, and to this he devoted himself with extraordinary zeal. 
He announced the word of Grod to the people with an energy 
and unction which kindled a flame in the hearts of those who 
heard him ; everything was inflamed that came from his mouth. 
. For an assistance to himself in this function he compiled his 
treatise called Pharetra, consisting of animated sentiments 
gathered from the writings of the fathers. In the mean time, 
he was employed in teaching privately in his own convent, till 
he succeeded his late master, John of Bochelle, in a public chair 
of the imiversity. The age required by the statutes for this 
professorship was thirty-five, whereas the saint was only thirty- 
three years old ; but his abilities amply supplied that defect, and 
on this literary theatre he soon displayed them to the admiration 
of the whole Church. He continued always to study at the foot 
of the crucifix. The disagreement between the university and 
the regulars being terminated by Pope Alexander IT. in 1256, 
St Thomas and St Bonaventure were invited to take the doctoi' 



146 ET. BONA VEW T UHg , B. D. [JOLT I4» 

cap together. As others contend for precedence, the two saints 
had a vehement contest of faumiKtj, each endeavouring to yield 
the first place to the other. They knew no pretexts of the 
interest of their Orders, nor were they sensible of any prerc^a- 
tives but those of humility. St. Bonaventure prayed and en» 
treated him with so much earnestness, that at length St. Thcnoes 
acquiesced to receive the degree first, and our saint triumphed 
over both his friend and himself. 

The holy king St. Lewis honoured St. Bonaventure with his 
particular esteem, invited him often to his own table, and con* 
suited him in his most intricate concerns, placing an entire confi* 
dence in his advice. He engaged him to compile an office of the 
passion of Christ for his use. St Bonaventure drew up a rule for 
St Isabella, the king's sister, and for her nunneiy of mitigated 
C3ares at Long^Champs. His book On the Government of the 
Soul, his Meditations for every day in the week, and most of his 
other lesser tracts were written to satisfy the requests of several 
devout persons of the court The unction which every word 
breathes in the writings of this holy doctor pierces the heart, 
and his concise expression is an abyss, or rather a treasure of 
most profound sentiments of humility, compunction, love, and 
devotion, the riches of which a pious heart finds everywhere 
boundless. Especially his tender sentiments of the love of Grod, 
and on the sacred passion of Christ, exceedingly recommend 
to all devout persons his^meditations on this latter subject, and 
express the burning affections with which his pure soul glowed 
towards that stupendous mystery of infinite love, goodness, and. 
mercy, that perfect model of all virtue and sanctity, and source 
of all our good. 

The celebrated Gerson, the most learned and devout ohaD- 
ceUor of Paris, writes of the works of St Bonaventure :( I) 
''Among all the Catholic doctors, Eustachius (for so we may 
translate his name of Bonaventure) seems to me the most proper 
for conveying light to the understanding, and at the same time 
warming the heart In particular his Brevioloquiun^ and Itin- 
erarium are written with so much force, art, and conciseness, 
that nothing can be beyond th^n.** In another book he says ;(2) 

(1) Genon, Tr. De libris quos religiod legere debent 
(2X6ciWD» 1* de Ezamine I>ociriiiar, 



JlJLT H.] ST. BONA VENTURE, B. 0i 149 

** St Bonaventurels works seem to me the most proper for the 
Instruction of the faithful. They are solid, safe^ pious, and 
devout ; and he keeps as far as he can from niceties ;- not med- 
dling with logical or physical questions which are foreign to the 
matter in hand. Nor is there any doctrine more sublime, more 
divine, or more conducive to piety." Trithemius recommends 
this doctor^s writings in the following words : "His expressions 
are full of fire, they no less warm with divine love the hearte of 
those who read them, than they fill their understanding with 
the most holy light. His works surpass those of all the doctors o^ 
his time, if we consider the spirit of divine love, and of Christian 
devotion that speaks in him. He is profound in few words, pene- 
trating without curiosity, eloquent without vanity; his discourse is 
infiamed without being bloated.^ — ^Whoever would be both learned 
and devout, let him read the works of St BonaTenture.'*(l) 

This is chiefly to be understood of his spiritual tracts. In 
these the author discovers every where a most profound spirit 
of humility and holy poverty, with a heart perfectly disengaged 
from all earthly things, and full of the most ardent love of Grod^ 
and the most tender devotion to the sacred passion of our Divine 
Redeemer. The eternal joys of heaven were the frequent en- 
tertainment of his pious soul, and he seems never to have 
interrupted his ardent sighs after them. He endeavoured by 
his writings to excite in all others the same fervent desires of 
our heavenly country. He writes(2) that " Gk)d himself, all the 
glorious spirits, and the whole family of the eternal King wait 
for us, and desire that we should be associated to th^n ; and 
shall not we pant above all things to be admitted into their 
happy company? He would appear amongst them with great 
confusion, who had not in this valley of tears continually raised 
his soul above all things visible to become already, in ardent 
desire, an inhabitant of those blessed regions.** He clearly 
shows that he was not able to express the transports of holy joy 
that overflowed his soul, as often as he contemplated its future 
union with God in immortal bliss and uninterrupted love and 
praise. He revolved in mind the raptures of gratitude and joy 
in which the blessed spirits behold themselves in the state of 

(1) See Du Pin, BibUoth. Cent. 13, p. 249, t 14. 

(2) Soliloqu. Exerdt. 4, c. 1, 2. 



150 ST. BONAVENTUm, B. D. [JULT 14. 

security for ever, whilst they see so many souls on earth every 
day overthrown by their spiritual enemies, and so many others 
lost in helL He was strongly affected with the thought of the 
glorious company of millions of angels and saints, all most holj, 
loving, and glorious, adorned each with their distinguishing 
trophies and graces ; in which every one will possess in others 
every gift which he hath not, and all those gifts which him- 
self hath, doubled so many times as he hath partners in bliss. 
For loving every companion as himself he will rejoice for 
the felicity of each no less than for his own. Whereupon, 
with St. Anselm, he often asked his own hearty here so poor, 
so weak, and overwhelmed with miseries, if then it would be 
able, without being strengthened and raised above itself by 
an extraordinary grace, to contain its joy for its own felicity ; 
how it could be able to contain so many and such excess of joys ? 
But this saint's sublime sentiments of piety and devotion are 
best learned from his own works. His love of an interior life 
did not hinder his application to promote the divine honour in 
others by various exterior employments ; but these he animated 
and sanctified by a constant spirit of recollection and prayer. 

Whilst he continued to teach at Paris he was chosen general 
of his Order in a chapter held in the convent called Ara-Codi, 
at Bome, in 1256. The saint was only thirty-five years old* 
Nevertheless Pope Alexander IV* confinned the dection. St, 
Bonaventure was thunderstruck at this news, and prostrating 
himself on the ground, he with many tears implored the divine 
light and direction. After which he set out immediately for 
Eome. The Franciscan Order was at that time divided by 
intestine dissensions, some of the friars being for an inflexible 
severity, others demanding certain mitigations of the letter of 
the rule. The young general no sooner appeared among them, 
but by the force of his exhortations which he tempered with 
mildness and charity, he restored a perfect calm ; and all the 
brethren marched under this new Josue with one heart, in the 
same spirit, and in the same path. William of Saint- Amour, a 
member of the university of Paris, having published a bitter 
invective against the Mendicant Orders, entitled, ''On the 
Dangers of the Latter Times," St. Thomas answered it. St, 
Bonaventure also confuted it by a book, which he called, " On 



July 14.] st. bona venture, b. d. 151 

the Poverty of the Lord Jesus," in which his mildness in hand- 
ling the controversy against a most virulent adversary reflected 
a double advantage on his victory. 

Our saint in his return to the schools at Paris, visited several 
of his convents in the way, in which he showed everywhere that 
he was only become superior to be the most humble, the most 
charitable, and the most compassionate of all his brethren, and 
the servant of his whole Order. Notwithstanding his great 
employments, he never omitted his usual exercises of devotion, 
but laid out his time and regulated his functions with such won- 
derful prudence as to find leisure for every thing. He composed 
several works at Paris, but often retired to Mante for greater 
solitude. A stone, which he used for his pillow, is shown to 
this day in that convent. In 1260 the saint held a general 
chapter at Narbonne, and in concert with the definitors, gave a 
new form to the old Constitutions, added certain new rules, and 
reduced them all into twelve chapters. At the request of the 
friars assembled in this chapter, he undertook to write the life 
of St. Francis ; but went first from Narbonne to Mount Alvemo, 
and there assisted at the dedication of a great church. In a 
little oratory, built upon the very place where St. Francis had 
received the miraculous marks of the wounds of our Saviour, 
St. Bonaventure continued a long while abstracted, and in an 
ecstacy, in holy meditation. He there wrote his incomparable 
treatise, called Itinerariiun Mentis in Deum, or the Way of the 
Soul to God, showing that all her comfort and riches are to be 
found in God alone, and tracing out the sure way that leads to 
him. Whilst he was in Italy he gathered the most authentic 
memoirs for the life of St. Francis, which he compiled with a 
spirit which shows him to have been filled with all the heroic 
virtues of his founder, whose life heVrote. St. Thomas Aquinas 
coming one day to pay him a visit whilst he was employed in 
this work, saw him through the door of his cell, raised in con- 
templation above the ground, and going away said : ^' Let us 
leave a saint to write for a saint.'' In 1230 St. Bonaventure 
assisted at the translation of the relics of St. Antony, which waa 
performed at Padua. From that city he went to hold a general 
chapter at Pisa, in which, by words and example, he exhorted 
his brethren to a great love of holy solitude. He gave on that 



152 8T. BONAy£NTUBE, B. D. [JuLT 14« 

and every other occasion proofs of his tender devotion to the 
Blessed Virgin. When ho was first made general he put his 
Order under her special patronage. He regulated many pious 
exercises of devotion to her, composed his Mirror of the Virgin, 
setting forth her graces, virtues, and prerogatives, with manjr 
prayers, which are tender and respectful effusions of the hearty 
to implore her intercession. He wrote a pathetic paraphrase in 
verse of the anthem Salve Begina.* He published the praises 
of the Mother out of devotion to the Son, and to extend His 
glory. To propagate his honour and saving faith he sent^ by 
the pope's authority, preachers into many barbarous nations, 
and lamented his situation that he could not go himself, and 
expose his life among the infidels. 

The venerable brother Giles, the third companion of St. 
Francis at Assisio,f said one day to St. Bonaventure: " Fa- 



* The psalter of the Blessed Virgin is falsely ascribed to St. Bonaven* 
ture, and unworthy to bear his name. (See Fabridus in Biblioth. med. 
setat. Bellarmin and Labbe de Script. Eccl. Nat. Alexander, Hist. £ccL 
Saec. 13.) The Vatican edition of the works of St. Bonaventure, was 
begun by an order of Sixtus Y. and completed in 1588. It consists of 
eight volumes in folio. The two first contain his commentaries on the 
holy scriptures : the third his sermons and panegyrics : the fourth and 
fifth his comments on the Master of the Sentences : the Sixth, seventh, 
and eighth, his lesser treatises, of which some are doctrinal, others regard 
the duties of a religious state, others general subjects of piety, especially 
the mysteries of Christ and the Blessed Virgin. Most of these have run 
through several separate editions. All his works have been reprinted 
at Mentz and Lyons ; and in 4to. in fourteen volumes at Venice, in 1751. 

f B. Giles was a native of Assisio, and became the third companion of 
St. Francis in 1209. He attended him in the Marche of Ancona, and 
made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, whither he was sent by St. Francis to 
preach to the Saracens ; but upon their threats of raising a persecution 
he was sent back to Italy by the Christians of that country. He after- 
wards lived some time at Bome,^some time at Keati, and some time at 
Fabriano ; but the chief part of the remainder of his life he spent at Pe. 
rugia, where he died in the night between the 22nd and 23rd of ^ril, 
in the year 1272, not in 1262, as Fapebroke proves against the erroneous 
computation of certfun authors. Cp. 220, t. 3, Apr.) Wadding and others 
relate many revelations, prophecies, and miracles of this eminent servant 
of Grod ; his tomb has been had in public veneration at Perugia from the 
time of his death, and he was for some time solemnly honoured as a saint 
in the church of his order in that city as Fapebroke i^ows ; who regrets 
that tliis devotion has been for some time much abated, probably beoiuse 
not judged sufficiently authorized by the holy see. The public venenu 
tion at his tomb and the adjoining altar continues, and the mass is sung, 
on account of his ancient festival, with great solemnity, but of St. 
George, without any solemn commemoration of this servant of God. — 



July 14.] st. bonatentube, b. b. 153 

iher» God has shown us great percj and bestowed on us manj 
graces. But we who are poor and ignorant idiots, what can we 
to do correspond to his immense goodness, and to be saved ?* 

6i« Bonaventure answered : " If God were to bestow on anj 
•- •- 

Neyertheless, from proofs of former solemn Teneration, Papebroke h'^ 
uours him with the title of Blessed. 

None among the first disciples of St. Francis seems to haye been more 
perfectly replenished with his spirit of perfect charity, humility, meek- 
ness, and simplicity, as appears from Ihe goldon maxims and lessons of 
piety, which he gave to others. Of these Papebroke has giren us a lurge 
and excellent collection from manuscripts ; some of which were before 
printed by Wading and others. A few wiU suffice to show us his spirit. 

B. Giles always lived by the labour of his hands. When the eantinal 
bishop of Tusciilum desired him always to receive his bread, as a poor 
man an alms, from his table ; B. Giles excused himself, using the words 
of the psalmist : Blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee, because 
thou shalt eat by the labour of thy hands, Ps. cxxrii. ** So brother 
Prancis taught bis brethren to be faithful and diligent in labouring, and 
to take for their wages not money, but necessary subsistence." (Pape- 
broke, p. 224.) If any one disooursed with him on the glory of Grod, 
the sweetness of his love, or Paradise, he would be ravished in spirit, 
and remain so a great part of the dajy unmoved. Shepherds and children 
who had learned this from others, sometimes for diversion or out of cu- 
riosity, cried out after him. Paradise, Paradise ; upon hearing which, 
he through joy fell into an ecstacy. His religious brethren in conversing 
with him took care never to name the word Paradise or Heaven for fear 
of losing his company by his being ravished out of himself, (ib. p. 226, 
and Wadding.) 

An extraordinary spiritual joy and cheerfulness appeared always 
painted on his countenance ; and if any one spoke to him of God, he an., 
swered in great interior jubilation of soul. Once returning to his bre« 
thren out of close retirement he praised God with wonderful joy and 
fervour, and sung — *' Neither tongue can utter, nor words express, nor 
mortal hearts conceive how great the good is which God hath prepared 
for those who desire to love him." 

Pope Gregory IX. who kept his court at Perugia from 1234 to autumn 
in 1236, sent one day for the holy maxi, who, in answer to his holiness's 
first question about his state of IHe, said — " I cheerfully take upon me 
the yoke of the commandments of the Lord." The pope replied — ** Tour 
answer is just ; but your yoke is sweet and your burthen light." At 
these words B. Giles withdrew a little from him, and, being ravished in 
spirit, remained speechless and without motion till very late in the nighty 
to the great astonishment of his holiness^ who spoke of it to his cardinals 
and others with great surprise. 

This pope on a certfun occasion pressed the holy man to say something 
to him on his own duty ; Giles aftisr having long endeavoured to excuse 
nimself said : ** Tou have two eyes, both a right and a left one, alwayi 
open; with the right eye you must contemplate the things which are 
above you: and with the left eye you must administer and dispense 
things which are below." 

On humility, the following maxims are recorded among his sayincig : 
** 'No man can attun to the knowledge of God but by humility. The way 
tu yiouu^ high is to descends for all dar^gers and all great fidls which eTec 



154 ST. BONAVENTUEE, B. D. [JULT 14. 

one no other talents besides the grace of loving him, this alonc^ 

suffices, and is every spiritual treasure.*' B. Giles said ; ** C-iU 

dull idiot love God as perfectly as a great scholar." St. Bo^ 

naventure replied : " A poor old woman may love him mor^ 

happened in the world, were caused by pride, aa is evident in the ange; 
in heaven, in Adam in Paradise, in the Pharisee mentioned in the gos- 
pel and ail spiritual advantages arose from humility, as we see in the 
Blessed Virgin, the good thief, &c. Woiild to God some great weight 
laid TZj^'on us obliged us always to hold down our heads." When a certain 
broth^ asked him: *'How can we fly this cursed pride?" he an- 
swered : *' K we consider the benefits of Grod, we must humble ourselves, 
and bow down our heads ; and if we consider our sins we must likewise 
humble ourselves, and bow down our heads. Woe to him who seeks ho- 
nour from his own confusion and sin. The degrees of humility in a man 
are, that he know that whatever is of his own growth is opposite to his 
good. A branch of this humility is, that he give to others what is theirs, 
and never appropriate to himself what belongs to another ; that is, tiuit 
he ascribe to God all his good and all advantages which he enjoys ; and 
acknowledge that all his evil is of his own growth. Blessed is be who 

accounts himself as mean and base before men as he is before God 

Blessed is he who walks faithfully in obedience to another. He who de- 
sires to enjoy inward peace, snist look upon every man as his superior 
and as better and greater before God. Blessed is he who knows how to 
keep and conceal the favours of God. Humility knows not how to speak, 
and patience dares not speak, for fear of losing the crown of suffering by 
complaints, in a firm conviction that a person |s always treated above his 
deserts. Humility dispels all evil, is an enemy to all sin, and makes a 
man nothing in his own eyes. By humility a man finds grace before Gh)d, 
and peace with men. God bestows the treasures of his grace on the 
humble, not on the proud. . A man ought always to fear from pride, lest 
it cast him down headlong. Always fear and watch over yourself. A 
man who deserves death, and who is in prison, how comes it that he does 
not always tremble ? A man is of himself poverty and indigence ; rich 
only by the divine gifts ; these then he must love, and despise himself. 
What is greater than for a man to be sensible what he owes to God, and 
to cover himself with confusion, self-reproach, and self-reprehension for 
his own evils ? I wish we could have studied this lesson from the begin- 
ning of the world to the end. How much do we stand indebted to him 
who desires to deliver us from all evil, and to confer upon us all good?" 
Against vain-glory he used to say: '* If a person was sunk in extreme 
poverty, covered all over with wounds, hfdf clad in tattered rags, and 
without shoes ; and men should come to him, and saluting him witii ho- 
nour say : * All admire you, my lord ; you are wonderfully rich, hand- 
some, and beautiful; and your clothes are splendid and handsome ;' must 
t not he have lost his senses, who should be pleased with such a compliment, 
*» or think himself such, knowing that he is the very reverse ?" 

The servant of God was remarkable for his medkness and charity, and 
he used to say, *' We can appropriate to ourselves our neighbour's good, 
and make it also our own ; for the more a person rejoices at his neigh- 
bour's good, the more does he share in it. If, therefore, you desire to 
share in the advantages of all others, re;[oice more ior them all ; and 
grieve for every one's misfortunes. This is the path of salvation, tu re- 
joice in every advantage, and to grieve for eve^^ misfortune of yoor 



JULT 14.] ST. BONAYENTUSE, B. D. 155 

than the most learned master and doctor in theology * At this 
brother Giles in a sudden fervour and jubilation of spirit went 
into a garden, end standing at a gate towards the city (of Rome) 

he looked that way, and cried out with a loud voice, " Come. 

the poorest^ most simple, and most illiterate dd woman, love 
the Lord our God, and you may attaiu to a higher degree at 
emineade and happiness than brother Bonaventure with all his 
learning." After this he fell into an ectacy, in which he con- 
tinned in 9weet contemplation without motion for the space of 
three hour« "(0 
Vope Clement IV, in 1265, nominated St. Bonaventure arch- 
(1) Vita B. -a^gidii apud Papebroke, t. 3. Aprilia ad diem 23, p. 236. 

neighbour ; to see and acknowledge your own evils and miseries, and to 
believe only good of others ; to honour others, and to despise yourself. 
We pray, fiist, and labour; yet lose all this if we do not bear iiyuriea 
with charity and patience. If we take so much pains to attain to virtue, 
, why do not we learn to do what is so easy ? you must bear the burdens 
of all, because you have no just reason of complaint against any one. 
seeing you deserve to be chastised and treated iU by all creatures. You 
desire to escape reproaches and condemnation in the next world, yet 
would bo honoured in this. You refuse to labour or bear anything here, 
yet desire to enjoy rest hereafter. Strive more earnestly to vanquish 
your passions, and bear tribulations and humiliations. It is necessary to 
overcome yourself, whatever you do. It avails your soul litde to draw 
others to God unless you die to yourself." 

On prayer, which this servant of (^tod made his constant occupation 
and delight, he used to say,-—** Prayer is the beginning and the consum- 
mation of all good. Every sinner must pray that God may make him 
know his miseries and sins, and the divine benefits. He who knows not 
how to pray, knows not God. All who are to be saved, if they have 
attained the use of reason, must set themselves to pray, lliough a 
woman were ever so bashful and simple, if she saw her only son taken 
from her by the king's orders for some crime, she would tear her breasts, 
and implore his mercy. Her love and her son's extreme danger and 
miseries would make her never want words to entreat him." 

The fhiits and graces of perfect prayer he sunmied up as follows : 1. 
" By it a man is enlightened in his understanding. 2. He is strength- 
ened in faith and in the love of all good. 3. He learns to know and feel 
his own miseries. 4. He is penetrated with holy fear, is humble and 
contemptible in his own eyes. 5. His heart is pierced with compunction. ^ 
6. Sweet tears flow in abundance. 7. His heart is cleansed. 8. His 
conscience purged. 9. He learns obedience. 10. Attains to the perfect 
spirit of that virtue. 11. To spiritual science. 12. To spiritual under- 
standing. 13. Invincible fortitude. 14. Patience. 15. Spiritual wis. 
dom. 16. Tlie knowledge of God, who manifests himself to those who 
adore him in spirit and truth. Hence love is kindled in the soul, she 
runs in the odour of his sweet perfumefs, is drowned in the torrent of his 
sweetness, enjoys perfect interior peace, and is brought to mimortaL 
clory." 



156 8T. BONAVENTCBE» B. 1>. ^JtlLY 14» 

bishop of York, being assured bow agreeable he would be to 
that cburcb, to the king of England, and his whole kingdom. 
Bud St. Bonaventure having first by earnest prayer begged that 
God would preserve him from so great a danger, went and cast 
himself at the feet of his hoHness, and by tears and entreaties 
«ixtorted from him a discharge of that burden. He held a 
general chapter at Paris in 1266: and in the next» which he 
assembled at Assisium, he ordered the triple salutation of the 
Blessed Virgin, called the Angelus Domini, to be recited every 
evening at six o'clock, to honour the incomprehensible mystery 
of the Incarnation, which ought to be the object of our perpe- 
tual praises and thanksgivii^. 

In 1272, Theobald, the holy archdeacon of Liege, a native 
of Flacentia, then absent in the Holy Land, was chosen pope, 
and took the name of Gregory X. a person of such eminent 
sanctity that a process has been set on foot for his canonization ; 
and Benedict XIV. in 1745, ordered his name to be inserted in 
the Eoman Martyrology. He was a man of an extraordinary 
reputation throughout all his life, for prudence in the conduct 
of his affairs ; for courage, greatness of mind, and contempt of 
money ; for devotion, clemency, and charity to the poor. He 
died on the 10th of January, 1276, on his return from the 
council at Abruzzo in Tuscany, of which city he is the titular 
patron. Miracles have rendered his name illustrious. Bona- 
venture fearing this holy pope would compel him to accept of 
some ecclesiastical dignity, left Italy and went to Paris, where 
he wrote his Hexaemeron or pious exposition of the creation, or 
work of six days. He had scarcely finished it, when at Whitsun- 
tide he received from the pope a brief by which he was nomi- 
nated cardinal, and bishop of Albano, one of the six suffragans 
of Rome. ^ His holiness added a precept to him to accept that 
double charge without alleging any pretext against it, and im- 
mediately to repair to Rome. He sent two nuncios to meet 
him on the road with the hat and other ensigns of his dignities. 
They found the saint reposing on his journey in a convent of 
his Order at Migel, four leagues from Florence, and employed 
in washing the dishes. He desired them io hang the cardinaFs 
bat on tl?.e bouglAof a tree^ because he could not decently take 
it in his hands, and left them to 'tvalk in the garden tiU he had 



July 14.] st. bonaventuhe. b. d. 157 

finished his work. Then taking up the hat he went to the 
nuncios, and paid them the respect due to their character. Gre- 
gory X. came from Orvietto to Florence, and there meeting 
Bonaventure ordained him bishop with his own hands ; then 
ordered him to prepare himself to speak in the general council 
which he had called to meet at Lyons for the reunion of the 
Greeks. 

The emperor Michael Palaeologus had made proposals to pope 
Clement IV. for a union. Pope Gregory X. zealously pursued 
this afTair. Joseph, patriarch of Constantinople, made a violent 
opposition, but was obliged by the emperor to retire into a mo- 
nastery. To bring this ^iffair to a happy conclusion, Gregory 
X. invited the Greeks to conle to the general council which he 
assembled at Lyons for this very purpose, and also to concert 
measures for pushing on a war for the recovery of the Holy 
Land, which the pope promoted with all his might. This was 
the fourteenth general council, and the second of Lyons. At 
it were present five hundred bishops, seventy abbots, James, 
king of Arragon, anct the ambassadors of the emperor Michael 
and of other Christian princes. St Thomas of Aquin died 
on the road to this synod. St. Bonaventure accompanied 
the pope through Milan to it, and arrived at Lyons in No- 
vember, though the council was only opened on the 7th of May, 
1274.(1) Bonaventure sat on the pope's right hand, and first 
harangiled the assembly. Between the second and third ses- 
sions he held his last general chapter of his Order, in which he 
abdicated the ofiice of general. He found leisure to preach, 
and he established at Lyons a pious confraternity called Del 
Genfalone, which he had formerly instituted at Rome. In it 
pious persons associated themselves in certain daily devotions, 
under the patronage of the mother of God. The deputies of 
the Greeks being arrived at Lyons, St. Bonaventure was or- 
dered by the pope to confer with them. They were charmed 
with his sweetness, and convinced by his reasonings and they 
acquiesced in every point. In thanksgiving the pope sung mass 
on the feast of SS. Peter and Paul, and the gospel was sung ^rsi 
in Latin, then in Greek. After this St. Bonaventure preached 

(n fonc. t. 11. p. 937. T 

VOL. VIT. ^ ' Ji.i/. »wf. j^ 



158 ST. BONA VENTURE, B. D. [JULT M. 

on the univ/ of faith. Then the creed was sung first in Latin, 
dien in Greek, and as a seal of the reunion of the two churches 
those words were thrice repeated : " Who proceedeth from the 
Father and the Son.** In memory of this solemn function two 
crosses are placed on the high altar of the metropolitan church 
of St John at Lyons.* St. Bonaventure was taken ill after 
this session ; nevertheless he assisted at the fourth^ in which 
the Logothete or high chancellor of Constantinople abjured the 
schism. But the next day the saint's strength began entirely 
to fail nim, insomuch that he was no longer able to attend busi- 
ness. From that time he gave himself up entirely to his pri- 
vate devotions, and the constant amiable serenity of his coun- 
tenance demonstrated the holy peace and joy of his soul in those 
most awful moments. The pope himself gave him extreme 
unction, as is attested by an inscription which hath been pre- 
served in the same chamber in which he died, to our times. 
The saint kept his eyes constantly fixed on a crucifix, and ex- 
pired in great tranquillity on the 14th of July, in the year 
1 274, of his age the fifty-third. The pope and the whole council 
solemnized his obsequies on the same day in the church of the 
Franciscans at Lyons. Peter of Tarrentaise, a Dominican 
friar, cardinal and bishop of Ostia, afterwards pope under the 
name of Innocent V., preached his funeral panegyric, in which 
he said, — " No one ever beheld him who did not conceive a 
great esteem and afiection for him ; and even strangers, T)y hear- 
ing him speak, were desirous to follow his counsel and advice ; 
for he was gentle, affable, humble, pleasing to all, compassion- 
ate, prudent, chaste, and adorned with all virtues." 

The body of St. Bonaventure was translated into the new 
chrurch of the Franciscans on the 1 4th of March, 1434. King 
Charles VIII. founded their new convent at Lyons at the foot 
of the castle of Pierre Incise in 1494, with a rich chapel in 
which the saint's remains were enshrined, except a part of the 
lower jaw which that king caused to be conveyed to Fontain- 
bleau, and it is now in the church of the Cordeliers in Paris ; 
the bones of an arm are kept at Bagnarea, and a little bone at 



• The Em|>eror Michael dying in 1283, his son Andronicus renewed 
the schism, and restored the deposed patriarch Josepli. 



[July .4. st. bonaventuue, b. d- * 1^9 

Venice. In 1562 the Calvinists plundered Ills shrine, burned 
his relics in the market-place, and scattered the ashes in the 
river Saone, as is related by the learned Jesuit Possevinus, who 
was then at L7ons.(l) Thej stabbed to death the guardian 
with a Catholic captain whom they had made prisoner ; they 
burned the archives of the library and set fire to the convent. 
The saint's head and some other relics escaped the fury of the 
rebels by having been concealed. St. Bonaventure was cano- 
nized by Sixtus IV. in 1482. Sixtus V. enrolled his. name 
among the doctors of the Church, in the same manner as Pius 
V. had done that of St. Thomas Aquinas. The acts of his cano- 
nization record several approved miracles wrought by his inter- 
cession. The city of Lyons, in 1628, being grievously afflicted 
with the plague, the raging distemper began to cease from the 
time in which certain relics of our saint were devoutly carried 
in procession. That and other cities have experienced the di- 
vine mercy in like manner, in several other public calamities, 
by invoking St. Bon^ventnre's interoession. Charles of Orleans, 
father of Lewis XII. king of France, was taken prisoner by the 
English in the battle of Agincourt, in 1425. During his cap- 
tivity he fell ill of a fever, under which no human remedies 
gave him any relief. The more desperate his situation appeared, 
with the more earnestness he set himself to implore the patron- 
jige of St. Bonaventure, and a perfect recovery ^as the recom- 
pense of his devotion. ^ In gratitude, as soon as he was set at 
li]>erty, he went to Lyons to offer up his thanksgivings and 
prayers at the tomb of the saint, on which he bestowed magnifi- 
cent presents.* 

(1) Posseviu. Apparatus sacer, t. 1, p. 245. 

* Gerson calls St. Bonaventure both a cherub and a seraph, because 
liis writings both enlighten and Inflame. His Order makes his doctrine 
the standard of their schools, according to a decree of Pope Pius V. To 
the works of St. Bonaventure these divines add the double comments of 
Scotus on Aristotle and the Master of the Sentences. 

Peter Lombard, a native of Novara m Lombardy, was recommended 
by St. Bernard (ep. 366, ) to Gilduin, first abbot of the regular canons of 
Gt. Victor's at Paris, performed there his studies, profesMd that Order, 
and was one of those who, by an order of Abbot Suger, King Lewis VII. 
and Pope Eugenius III. in 1147, were sent from St. Vietor's to St. Oene- 
Tieve's in place of the secular canons. Eudes or Odo, one of this number, 
was chosen first re^rular abbot of St. Genevieve's, on whose eminent vir. 
tuee see tha nioua ¥ Gourdan, in his MS. history of the eminent men of 



160 ST. BONAVENTUKE, B. ». [Joi*T 14, 

St. Bonaventure, this great master of a spiritual life^ places 
not the perfection of Christian yirtue so much in the more heroio 
exercises of a religious state as in the performing well our or** 
dinary actions. '* The best perfection of a reM^ous man," sajs 

St. Victor's, in 7 vols, folio, t. 2, p. 281, Pfeter Lombard taught theo-i 
logy at St. GenevicTe's, till in 1159 he was made btehop of Pferis. Gour^ 
dan, lb. t. 2, pp. 79, 80. He died, bishop of that city^ in 1164. He 
compiled a body of divinity, collected from the writings of the fathers, 
into four books, called Of the Sentences, from which he was sumamed 
The Master of the Sentences. This work he is said by some to have 
copied chiefly from the writings of Blandinus his master, and others. 
(See James Thomasius De Plagio literario, from sect. 493 to 502.) 
Though it be not exempt from inaccuracies, the method appeared so 
well adapted to the purposes of the schoolmen that they followed the 
same and for their lectures gave comments on these four books of 
the Sentences. Among these, St. Thomas Aquinas stands foremost. 
The divines of the Franciscan Order take for their guides St. Bonayeiu 
ture and John Duns Scotus, This latter was bom in Northumberland, 
and entered young into the Order of St. Francis at Newcastle. He per- 
formed his studies, and afterwards taught divinity alt Oxford, where he 
wrote his Commentaries on the Master of the Sentences, which were 
tli^ce called his Oxonian Commentaries. He was^called to Paris about 
the year 1304, and in 1307 was appointed by his Order, regent of their 
theological schools in that university, where he published his Keportata 
in Sententias, called his Paris Commentaries, which are called by Dr. 
Cave a rough or unfinished abstract of his Oxford Commentaries. For 
the subtlety and quickness of his understanding, and his penetrating 
genius, he was regarded as a prodigy. Being sent by his Order to Co- 
logn in 1308, he was received by the whole city in procession, but died 
on the 8th of November the same year, of an apoplexy, being forty-three, 
or as others sf^, only thirty.ftiur years old, The fable of his being 
buried alive is clearly confuted by Luke Wadding, the learned Irish Fran- 
ciscan, who published his works, with notes, in twelve tomes, printed at 
Lyons in 1 636. Natalis Alexander, a most impartial inquirer into this dis- 
pute, and others, have also demonstrated that story to have been a most 
groundless fiction. Wadding, Colgan, Ac. say that Duns Scotus was an 
Irishman, and bom at Down in Ulster. John Major, Dempster, and 
Trithemius say he was a Scotchman, bom at Duns, eight miles from Eng- 
land. But Leland, Wharton, Cave, and Tanner prove that he was an 
Englishman, and a native of Dunstone, by contraction Duns, a village in 
Northumberland, in the parish of Emildun, then belongiqg to Merton- 
hall in Oxford, of which hall he was afterwards a member. This is at- 
tested in the end of several manuscript copies of his comments on the 
Sentences, written soon after the time when he lived, and still shown at 
Oxford in the colleges of Baliol and Merton. That be was a Scotchman 
or an Irishman, no author seems to have asserted before the sixteenth 
century, as Mr. Wharton observes. See Cave, t. 2, Append, p. 4. Wood, 
Athen. Oxon. Sir James Ware de Script. Hibern. c. 10, p. 64. Tanner 
de Script. Brit. V. Duns. Wadding in the life of Scotus, prefixed tp his 
works. 

William Ockham, a native of Surrey, also a Grey-Friar, a scholar of 
Duns Scotus at Paris, disagreeing from his master in opinions, raised hot 
. .4iap\it^ in ^te spools, and became the head or leader of the Nop;4n«4^, a 



July 14.] st. camillus, c. 161 

Ve, " is to do common things in a perfect manner.(l) A con- 
stant fidelity in small things is a great and heroic virtue." It 
is a continual crucifixion of self-love and all the passions ; a 
complete sacrifice of all our actions, moments, and affections, 
and the entire reign of God's grace throughout our whole lives. 
Quintilian lays it down for the great rule in forming an orator 
that he accustom himself never to write or speak carelessly even 
on the most trifling subject or in common conversation, but that 
he study always to express himself in the most proper manner 
possible ; with far greater diligence ought every one strive to 
perform all even the meanest of his actions in the most perfect 
manner, and to improve every grace, every moment of time to 
advance in virtue. 

ST. CAMILLUS DE LELLIS, C. 

He was born in 1550 at Bacchianico, in Abruzzo, in the king- 
dom of Naples. He lost his mother in his infancy, and six 
years after his father, who was a gentleman, and had been an 
officer, first in the Neapolitan and afterwards in the French 
troops in Italy. Camillus having learned only to read and write, 

(I) St. Bonav. Specul. Novit. p. 2, c. 2. 

fleet among the schoolmen who in philosophy explain things chiefly by 
the properties of terms; and maintain that words, not things, are the 
object of dialectic, in opposition to the others called Realists. Ockham 
was provincial of lus Order in England in 1322, and according to Wood 
(Hist, et Ant. 1. 2. p. 87,) wrote a book On the Poverty of Christ, and 
other treatises against Pope John XXII. by whom he was ezcommuni- 
cated. He became a warm abettor of the schism of Lewis of Bavaria, 
and his antipope, Peter Corbarius, and died at Munich in 1347> He is 
said also to have favoured the heresy of the Fratricelli, introduced by 
oertam Grey-Friars in the marquisate of Ancona, who made all perfec- 
tion to consist, in a seeming poverty, rebelled against the church, and 
railed at the pope and the other pastors. Flying into Germany, they 
were &voured by Lewis of Bavaria, and in return supported his schism. 
They at length rejected the sacraments as useless. Akin to these were 
the Beguards and Beguines, an heretical sect formed by several poor 
lajrmen and women, who, some by an ill-governed devotion and a love of 
a lazy life, others out of a spirit of libertinism, would needs imitate the 

goverty of the Friars Mendicants, without being tied to obedience, or 
ving under superiors. They at length fell into many extravagant 
errors, and became a society of various notions and opinions, which had 
nothing in common but the hatred they bore to the pope and other prelates, 
and the affectation of a voluntary poverty, under which they covered an 
infinite number of disorders and crimes. Such are the baneful fruits of 
leif-oonceit. 



162 8T. CAMILLUS, C. [JOLT i4^ 

entered liiirwelf young in the army, and served first in the Ve- 
netian, and afterwards in the Neapolitan troops, till, in 1574, 
his company was disbanded. He had contracted so violent a 
passion for cards and gaining, that he sometimes lost even ne- 
cessaries. All playing at lawful games for exorbitant 8«ims, 
and absolutely all games of hazard for considerable sums are 
forbidden by the law of nature, by the imperial or civil law,(l) 
by the severest laws of all Christian or civilized nations, and 
by the canons of the church.* No contract is justifiable in 
which neither reason nor proportion is observed. Nor can it be- 
consistent with the natural law of justice for a man to stake 
kny sum on blind chance, or to expose, without a reasonable equi- 
valent or necessity, so much of his own or antagonist's money, 
that the loss would notably distress himself or any other person. 
Also many other sins are inseparable from a spirit of gaming, 
which springs from avarice, is so hardened as to rejoice in the 
loss of others, and is the source and immediate occasion of 
many other vices. The best remedy for this vice is, that those 
who are infected with it be obliged, or at least exhorted, to 
give whatever they have won to the poor. 

Camillus was insensible of the evils attending gaming, till 
necessity compelled him to open his eyes ; for he at length was 
reduced to such straits, that for a subsistence he was obliged to 
drive two asses, and to work at a building which belonged to 
the Capuchin friars. The divine mercy had not abandoned liini 
through all his wanderings, but had often visited him with 
strong interior calls to penance. A moving exhortation which 
the guardian of the Capuchins one day made him, completed 
Lis conversion. Ruminating on it as he rode from him upon 
his business, he at length alighted, fell on his knees, and vehe- 
menently striking his breast, with many tears and loud groans 
«l«iplored his past unthinking, sinful life, and cried to heaven 

(I) Tit de Aleatoribiis tam in Digesto quam in Codice. 



* See St. Bonav. in 4 dist. 14. St. Rajmund. St. Antonin. Comitc 
l««, 1. 3, 7, 9, p. 848, &c. Aristotle (1. 4, Ethic, c. 1,) places game- 
sters in the same class with highwaymen and plunderers. St. Bernardia 
ot' Sienna (5^nn. 33, Domin. 5, Quadrag. t. 4,) says they are worse than 
robliers, because more treaclierous, and covering their rapine under se- 
ducing glosses. 



Jolt 14.J 8t. camillds, c. 163 

for mercy. This happened in February, in the year 1575, the 
twenty-fifth of his age ; and from that time to his kst breath 
he never interrupted his penitential course. He made an essay 
of a novitiate both among the Capuchins and the Grey Friars ; 
but could not be admitted to his religious profession among 
either on account of a running sore in one of his. legs, which 
was judged incurable. Therefore leaving his own country he 
went to Rome, and there served the sick in St. James's hos- 
pital of incurables four years with great fervour. He wore a 
knotty hair shirt, and a rough brass girdle next his skin ; 
watched night and day about the sick, especially those who 
were dying, with the most scrupulous attention. He was most 
zealous to suggest to them devout acts of virtue and to procure 
them every spiritual help. Fervent humble prayer was the assi- 
duous exercise of his soul, and he received the holy communion 
every Sunday and holiday, making use of St. Philip Neri for 
his confessarius. The provisors or administrators having been 
witnesses to his charity, prudence^ and piety, after some time 
appointed kim director of the hospital. 

CamiUus grieving to see the sloth of hired servants in attend- 
ing the sick, formed a project of associating certain pious per- 
sons for that office who should be desirous to devote themselves 
to it out of a motive of fervent charity. He found proper per- 
sons so disposed ; but met with great obstacles in the execution 
of his design. . With a view of rendering himself more useful 
in spiritually assisting the sick, he took a resolution to prepare 
himself to receive holy orders. For this purpose he went 
through a course of studies with incredible alacrity and ardour, 
and received all his orders from Thomas Goldwell, bishop of 
St. Asaph's, suifragan to Cardinal Savelli, the bishop vice- 
prerent in Rome, under Pope Gregory XIIL A certain gen- 
tleman of Rome, named Firmo Calmo, gave the saint six 
hundred Roman sequines of gold (about two hundred and fifty 
pounds sterKng), which he put out for an annuity of thirty-six 
sequines a year during his life ; this amounting to a competent 
patrimony for the title of his ordination, required by the coun- 
cil of Trent and the laws of the diocess. The same pious gen- 
tleman, besides frequent great benefactions during his life, bf»- 
queath^d his whole estate real and personal on Camillus'a 



164 ST. CAMILLUS, C. [JOLT 14^ 

hospital at his death. The saint was ordained priest at Whit- 
suntide in 1584, and heing . nominated to serve a little chapel 
called our Lad/s cid miraeula^ he quitted the direction of the 
hospital. Before the close of the same year he laid the founda- 
tion of his congregation for serving the sick, giving to those 
who were admitted into it a long black garment with a black 
doth for their habit The saint prescribed them certain short' 
rules, and they went every day to the great hospital of the 
Holy Ghost, where they served the sick with so much affection, 
piety, and diligence, that it was visible to all who saw them, 
tliey considered Christ himself as lying sick or wounded in his 
members. ' 

They made the beds of the patients, paid them every office 
of charity, and by their short pathetic exhortations disposed 
them for the last sacraments, and a happy death. The founder 
had powerful adversaries and great difficulties to struggle with ; 
but by confidence in God he conquered them all. In 1585 his 
friends hired for him a large house, and the success of his 
undertaking encouraged him to extend further his pious views ; 
for he ordained that the members of his congregation should 
bind themselves by the obligation of their institute, to serve 
persons infected with the plague, prisoners, and those who lie 
dying in private houses. 

Sickness is often the most severe and grievous of all trials, 
whence the devil made it his last assault in tempting Job.( I ) 
It is a time in which a Christian stands in need of the greatest 
constancy and fortitude ; yet through the weakness of nature, 
is generally the least able to keep his heart united with Grod, 
and usually never stands more in need of spiritual comfort and 
assistance. The state of sickness is always a visitation of God, 
who by it knocks at the door of our heart, and puts us in mind 
of death ; it is the touchstone of patience, and the school or 
rather the harvest of penance, resignation, divine love, and 
every virtue ; yet by a most fatal abuse is this mercy often lost 
and perverted by sloth, impatience, sensuality, and froward- 
jiess. Those who in time of health were backward in exercising 
fervent acts of faith, hope, charity, contrition, &c., in sickness 

a)J(>bii. 4. 



^^_J 



July 14.] st. camillus, c- 165 

are still more indisposed for practices with which they are un- 
acquainted ; and to their grievous misfortune sometimes pastors 
cannot sufficiently attend them, or have not a suitable address 
which will give them the key of their hearts, or teach them the 
art of insinuating into the souls of penitents the heroic senti- 
ments and an interior relish of those essential virtues. 

This consideration moved Camillus to make it the chief end 
of his new establishment, to afford or procure the sick all spi- 
ritual succour, discreetly to suggest to them short pathetic acts 
of compunction and other virtues, to read by them, and to pray 
for them. For this end he furnished his priests with proper 
books of devotion, especially on penance and on the sufferings 
of Christ ; and he taught them to have always at hand the most 
suitable ejaculations extracted from the psalms and other devo- 
tions.* But dying persons were the principal object of our 
saint's pious zeal and charity. A man's last moments are the 
most precious of his whole life ; and are of infinite importance, 
as on them depends his eternal lot. Then the devil uset^ his 
utmost efforts to ruin a soul, and eomeih downy having great 
fcraih, knowing that he hath hui a short times^l) The saint 
therefore redoubled his earnestness to afford every spiritual 
help to persons who seemed in danger of death. He put them 
early in mind to settle their temporal concerns, that their 
thoughts might be afterwards employed entirely on the affair of 
their soul. He advised those friends not to approach them too 
much, whose sight or immoderate grief could only disturb op 
afflict them. He disposed them to receive the last sacraments 
by the most perfect acts of compunction, resignation, faith, 
hope, and divine love ; and he taught them to make death a 
voluntary sacrifice of themselves to the divine will, and in sa- 
tisfaction for sin ; of which it is the punishment. He instructed 
them to conjure their blessed Redeemer by the bitter anguish 
which his divine heart felt in the garden and on the cross, and 
by his prayer with a loud voice and tears, in which he deserved 
to be heard for his reverence, that he would show them mercy, 

-.(1) Apocadi. 12. 

• On the methods of varying every day these acts, see Polancus, De 
mode juYandi morieptes ; Joan, a S. Thoma. Card. Bona, &c. 



L 



160 ST. CAMILLUS, C. [JlTLY 14- 

mnd give them the grace to offer up their death in union with 
his most precious death, and to receive their soul as he with his 
last breath recommended his own divine soul into the hands of 
his heavenly Father, and with it those of all his elect to the 
end of the world. He instituted prayers for all persons in their 
agony, or who were near their death. 

Every one was charmed at so perfect a project of charity, 
and all admired that such noble views, and so great an under- 
taking should have been reserved to an obscure, illiterate per- 
son. Pope Sixtus y. confirmed this congregation in 1586, and 
ordered that it should be governed by a trleniiial superior. Ca- 
milius was the first, and Roger, an Englishman, was one of his 
first companions. The church of St. Mary Magdalen was be- 
stowed on him for the use of his congregation. In 1688 he was 
invited to Naples, and with twelve companions founded there a 
new house. Certain galleys having the plague on board were 
forbidden to enter the harbonr. Wherefore these pious Servants 
of the sick (for that was the name they took) went on board, 
and attended them ; on which occasion two of their number 
died of the pestilence, and were the first martyrs of charity in 
this holy institute. St. CamiHuS showed a like charity in Rome 
when a pestilential fever swept off great numbers, and again 
when that city was visited by a violent famine. In 1591 Grre- 
gory XY. erected this congregation into a religious Order, with 
all the privileges of the mendicant Orders, and under one obli- 
gation of the four vows of poverty, chastity, obedience, and 
perpetually serving the sick, even those infected with the 
plague ; he forbade these religioos men to pass to any other 
Order except to that of the Carthusians. Pope Clement VIII. 
in 1592 and 1600 again confirmed this Order, with aclditional 
privileges. Indeed the very end of this institution engaged all 
men to favour it ; especially those who considered haw many 
thousands die, even in the midst of priests, without sufficient 
help in preparing themselves for that dreadful hour which de- 
cides their eternity ; what superficial confessions, what neglect 
in acts of contrition, charity, restitution, and other essential 
duties, are often to be feared ; which grievous evils might be 
frequently remedied by the assiduity of well qualified ministers. 

Among many abuses and dangerous evils which the zeal of 



■/. J 



July 14.] sr. camili-us^ c. 167 

St. Camillus prevented, his attention to everj circumstance 
relating to the care of dying persons soon made him discover 
that in hospitals many are buried alive, of which Cicatello 
relates several examples,(l) particularly of one buried in a 
vault, who was found walking about in it when the next empse 
was brought to be there interred. Hence the saint ordered his 
mligious to continue the prayers for souls yet in their agony 
for a quarter of an hour after they seem to have drawn their 
last breath, and not to suffer their faces to be covered so soon 
as is usual, by which means those who are not dead are stiiied. 
This precaution is most necessary in cases of drowning, apo^ 
plezies, and such accidents and distempers which arise from 
mere obstructions or -some sudden revolution of humours.* St. 

(1) Cicat. 1. 2, c. 1, p. 446. 



* This observation of St. Camillus has been since confirmed by many 
instances of persons who were found to have been buried alive, or to 
have recovered long after they had appeared to have been dead. Ac 
counts of several such examples are found in many modern medical and 
philosophical memoirs of literature which have appeared during this 
century, especially in France and Germany ; and experience evinces the 
case to have been frequent. Boerhaave (Not. in Instit. Medic.) and 
some other men, whose names stand among the foremost in the list of 
philosophers, have demonstrated by many undoubted examples, that 
where the person is not dead, an entire cessation of breathing and of the 
circulation of the blood may happen for some time, by a total obstruc 
tion in the organical movements of the springs and fluids of the whole 
body, which obstruction may sometimes be afterwards removed, and the 
vitid functions restored. Whence the soul is not to be presumed to leave 
the body in the act of dying, but at the moment in which some organ or 
part of the body absolute^ essential to life is irreparably decayed or de- 
8troyed. Kor can any certain mark be given that a person is dead till 
some evident symptom of putrefaction commenced appears sensible. 

Dnran and some other eminent surgeons in France, in memorials ad. 
dressed, some to the French king, others to the public, complain that 
two customs call for redress, first, that of burying multitudes in the 
churches, by which experience shows that the air is often extremely in- 
fected ; the second is that of which we speak. To prevent the danger of 
this latter, these authors insist that no corpse should be allowed to be 
buried, or its face close covered, before some certain proof of putrefac- 
tion, for which they assign as usually one of the first marks, if the lower 
jaw being stirred does not restore itself, the spring of the muscles beinjf 
lost by putrefaction. See Doctor Bnihier, Memoire presente au Roi, 
nvLT la Necessite d'un B^glement General au Sujet des Enterments et 
Embaumements, in 1745 ; also Dissertation sur Tlncertitude des Si.un)e« 
de la Mort, in 1749, 2 vols, in l2mo. ; and Dr. Louis, Lettres sur la Cer- 
titude des Signes de la Mort, centre Bruhier, in 1752, in 12mo. 

The Ilomans usually kept the bodies of the dead eight days, and prao- 



L. 



168 ST. CAMILLUS, C. [JULT 14» 

Camillas showed still a far greater solicitude to provide all 
eomfort and assistance for the souls of those who are sick, sug- 
gesting frequent short pathetic aspirations, showing them a 
(crucifii:, examining their past confessions and present dispo^ 
sitions, and making them exhortations with such unction and 
fervour that his voice seemed like a shrill trumpet, and pierced 
the hearts of all who heard him. He encouraged his disciples 
to these duties with words of fire. He did not love to hear 
any thing spoken unless divine charity made part of the 
suhject ; and if he heard a sermon in which it was not men- 
tioned, he would call the discourse a gold ring without a stone. 
He was himself afflicted with many corporal infirmities, as a 
sore in his leg for forty-six years ; a rupture for thirty-eight 
years which he got hy serving the sick ; two callous sores in 
the sole of one of his feet, which gave him great pain ; violent 
nephritic colics, and for a long time hefore he died, a loss of 
appetite. Under this complication of diseases he would not 
suifer any one to wait on him, but sent all his brethren to 
serve poor sick persons. When he was not able to stand he 
would creep out of his bed, even in the night, by the sides of 
the beds, and crawl from one patient to another to exhort them 
to acts of virtue, and see if they wanted anything. He slept 
very little, spending greater part of the night in prayer and in 
serving the sick. He used often to repeat with St Francis : 
** So great is the happiness which I hope for, that all pain and 
suffering is a pleasure." His friars are not obliged to recite 
the church office unless they are in holy Orders ; but confess 

tised a ceremony of often calling upon them by their names, of which 
certain traces remain in many places from the old ceremonial for the 
burial of kings and princes. Senrabantur cadavera octo diebus, et calida 
abluebantur, et post ultimam conclamationem abluebantur. Servius in 
Virgil iE^eidon, 1. 8, ver. 2, 8. The corpse was washed whilst warm, 
and again alter the last call addressed to the deceased person, which was 
the close of the ceremony before the corpse was burnt or interred ; and 
to be deprived of it was esteemed a great misfortune. Corpora nondum 
conclamata jacent, Lucan, 1. 2, ver. 22. Jam defletus et conclamatuf 
OS. Apulleus, 1. 1. Metam, et 1. 11, ib. Desine, jam conclamatum 
est. Terent. Eunuch. 2, 3, ver. 56. St. Zeno of Verona, describing a 
wife who immoderately laments her deceased husband, says: Cadaver 
ampiectitur conclamatum. St. Zeno, 1. 1, Trac. 16, p. 126, nov. ed 
Yeron. This ceremonv, trivial in itself, was of importance to ascertain 
publidy the death of line person. 



imti 



July 14-3 st. camillus^ c. 169 

and commanicate every Sunday and great holiday, have every 
day one hour^s meditation, hear mass, and say the litany, beads, 
and other devotions. The holy founder was most scrupulously 
exact in every word and ceremony of the holy mass, and of the 
divine office. He despised himself to a degree that astonished 
all who knew him. He laid down the generalship in 1607, 
that he might be more at leisure to serve the poor. He 
founded religious houses at Bologna, Milan, Genoa, Florence, 
Ferrara, Messina, Palermo, Mantua, Yiterbo, Boochiano, Theate, 
Burgonono, Sinuessa, and other places. He had sent several 
of his friars into Hungary, and to all other places which in his 
time were afflicted with the plague. When Nola was visited 
with that calamity in 1600, the bishop constituted Camillus his 
vicar general, and it is incredible what succours the sick re- 
ceived from him and his companions, of whom five died of 
that distemper, God testified his approbation of the saint's 
jjeal by the spirit of prophecy and the gift of miracles, on. 
several occasions, and by many heavenly communications an<l 
favours. 

He assisted at the fifth general chapter of his Order in 
Rome, in 1613, and after it, with the new general, visited the 
houses in Lombardy, giving them his last exhortations, which 
were every where received with tears. At Genoa he was 
extremely ill, but being a little better, duke Doria, Tursi sent 
him in his rich galley to Civita Vecchia, whence he was con- 
veyed in a litter to Bome. He recovered so as to be able to 
finish the visitation of his hospitals, bat soon relapsed, and his 
life was despaired of by the physicians. Hearing this he said : 
/ rejoice in what hath been told me : We shall go into the 
house of the Lord, He received the viaticum from the hands 
of Cardinal Ginnasio, protector of his Order, and said with 
many tears ; " Lord, I confess I am the most wretched of 
sinners, most undeserving of thy favour ; but save me by thy 
infinite goodness. My hope is placed in thy divine mercy 
through thy precious blood." Though he had lived in the 
greatest purity of conscience ever since his conversion, he had 
been accustomed to go every day to confession with great com- 
punction and many tears. When he received the extreme* 
unctioi) l^e made a moving exhortation to his religious brethren. 



170 8T. HENBT II, EMPEHOlt. [JOLT 15* 

and having foretold that he should die that evening, he ex* 
pired on the 14th of July, 1614, being sixty-five years, one 
month, and twenty days old. He was buried near the high 
altar in St Mary Magdalen's church ; but upon the miracles 
which were authentically approved, his remains were taken up 
and laid under the altar ; they were enshrined after he was 
beatified in 1742, and in 1746 he was solemnly canofjitzed by 
Benedict XIV. See the life of St. Camillus by Cicatello bis 
disciple, and the acts of his canonisation with those of SS* 
Fiddis of Sigmaringa, Peter Begalati, Joseph of Leonissa, and 
St. Catharine de Ricci, printed at Rome in 1749, pp. 10, 65, 
and 529 ; and BuUar. Rom. t. 16, p. 83. Helyot, Hist, des 
Orders Relig. t. 4, p. 263, 

ST. IDUS. BISHOP OF ATH-FADHA, IN LEINSTEB, 

Was a worthy disciple of St. Patrick, by whom he was bap- 
tized. He is often invoked in the old Irish prayer in verse 
which bears the name of St. Moling. See Colgan in MSS. 



JULY XV. 
ST. HENRY IL, EMPEROR. 

From his authentic life, published by Surius and D'Andilly, and firom 
the historians Sigebert, Glaber, Bithmar, Lambert of Aschaffenburg, 
Leo XJrbevetanus in his double chronicle of the popes and emperors, in 
Delidse Eruditor, t. 1, and 2. Aventin's Annals of Bavaria, &c. 

A, D. 1024. 

St. Henry, surnamed the Pioas and the Lame, was son of 

Henry, duke of Bavaria, and of Gi/sella, daughter of Conrad, 

/*) king of Burgundy, and was born in 972. He was descended 

y from Henry, duke of Bavaria, son of the emperor Henry the 

^ Fowler, and brother of Otho the Great, consequently our saint 

was near akin to the three first emperors who bore the name of 

Otho. St. Wolfgang, the bishop of Ratisbon, being a prelate 

the most eminent in all Germany for learning, piety, and zeal, 

our young prince was put under his tuition, and by his excel- 

lent instructions and «ixample he made from his infancy won- 



JltlY 15.] ST, HEMIY II., EMrEUOK.* 171 

derful progress in learning and in the most perfect practice of 
Christian virtue. The death of his dear master and spiritual 
guide, which happened in 994, was to him a most sensible 
affliction. In the following year he succeeded his father in the 
dutchy of Bavaria, and in 1002, upon the death of his cousin 
Otho m., he was chosen emperor.* He was the same year 
crowned king of Germany at Mentz, by the archbishop of that 
city. He had always before his eyes the extreme dangers to 
which they are exposed who move on the precipice of power, 
and that all human things are like edifices of sand, which every 
breath of time threatens to overturn or deface ; he studied the 
extent and importance of the obligations which attended his 
dignity ; and by the assiduous practice of humiliations, prayer, 
and pious meditation, he maintained in his heart the necessary 
spirit of humility and holy fear, and was enabled to bear the 
tide of prosperity and honour with a constant evenness of 
temper. Sensible of the end for which alone he was exalted 
by God to the highest temporal dignity, he exerted his most 

* The empire of the West, which had been extinguished in Augusta- 
Ins, was restored m the year 800, in the person of Cfaarlemagoe, knig 
of France, who extended his conquests into part of Spain, almost all 
Italy, all Flanders and Germany, and part of Hmigary. The imperial 
crown continued some time in the different branches of his family, tome- 
times in France, sometimes in Germany, and sometimes in both united 
imder the same monarch. Lewis IV. the eighth hereditary emperor of 
the Franks, was a weak prince, and died in the twentieth year of his 
ap:e, in 912, without leaving any issue. These emperors, in imitation of 
the Lombards, had created several petty sovereigns in their states, who 
^ew veiy powerful. These princes declared that by the death of LemMs 
IV. the imperial dignity had devolved on the Germanic people ; and ex- 
cluding Charles the Simple, king of France, the next heir in blood of the 
Carlovingian race, elected Conrad I. duke of Franconia ; and after him 
Henry I. surnam^d the Fowler, duke of Saxony, who was succeeded by 
three Othos of the same family of Saxony. After St. Henry II. several 
emperors (the following Henries, and two Frederics in particular) were 
of the Franconian family. Rodolph I. of the house of Austria was 
chosen in 1273. There have heen four dukes of Bavaria emperors, tre 
of the house of Luxemburg, three of the old Bohemian royal house, Ac. 
But in 1438, Albert II. duke of Austria and marquis of Moravia, was 
raised to that supreme dignity, which from that time has remained chiefly 
in that family. The ancient ducal house of Saxony was descended fVom 
Wittekind the Great, the last elected king of the Saxons, who afterwards 
sustained a long ohstinate war against Pepin and Charlemagne, suhmitted 
to the latter, and heing baptized by St. Lullus in 785, was created by 
Charlemagne, first duke of Saxony. St. Henry II. was the fifth em^ 
perodT of the Saxon raoe, descended from Wittekind the Great. 



172 •ST. HENRT II., EMFEBOS ]^JULY 15» 

itrenuous endeavours to promote in all things the divine 
honour, the exaltation of the church, and the peace and happi- 
ness of his people. 

Soon after his accession to the throne he resigned the duke- 
dom of Bavaria, which he bestowed on his brother-in-law- 
Henry, sumamed Senior. He procured a national council of 
the bishops of all his dominions, which was assembled at Dort- 
mund, in Westphalia, in 1005, in order to regulate many points 
of discipline, and to enforce a strict observance of the holy 
canons. It was owing to his zeal that many provincial synods 
were also held for the same purpose in several parts of the 
empire. He was himself present at that of Frankfort in 1006* 
and at another of Bamberg in 1011. The protection he owed 
bis subjects engaged him sometimes in wars, in all which he 
was successful. By his prudence, courage, and clemency he 
stifled a rebellion at home in the beginning of his reign, and 
without striking a stroke compelled the malecontents to lay 
down their arms at his feet, which when they had done he 
received them into favour. Two years after he quelled another 
rebellion in Italy, when Ardovinus or Hardwic, a Lombard 
lord, had caused himself to be crowned king at Milan. This 
nobleman, after his defeat, made his submission, and obtained 
his pardon. When he had afterwards revolted a second time, 
the emperor marched again into Italy, vanquished him in 
battle, and deprived him of his territories, but did not take 
away his life, and Ardovinus became a monk. After this 
second victory, St, Henry went in triumph to Rome, where, in 
1014, he was crowned emperor with great solemnity by Pope 
Benedict VIII. On that occasion, to give a proof of his de- 
votion to the holy see, he confirmed to it, by an ample diploma, 
the donation made by several former emperors, of the sove- 
reignty of Rome and the exarchate of Ravenna :* and after a 

* On the authenticity of this diploma of Henry II. and also of those 
of Pepin, Charlemagne, and Otho I. see the Dissertation of the Abbe 
Cenni, entitled, Esame de Diplomi d'Ottone ^ S. Arrigo, printed at Borne 
in 1754. 

That the see of Rome was possessed of great riches, even daring the 
rage of the first persecutions, is cloar from the acts of universal charity 
performed by the popes, mentioned by St. Dionysius of Corinth, and 
after the ^ersecntiops by St. Basil and St. John Climacos. From the 



July 15. j st. kbsry n^ EiiPEROR. 173 

Bbort stay at Rome, took leave of the pope, and in his return 
to Germany kept the Easter holydays at Pavia; then ho 
visited the monastery of Cluni, on which he bestowed the im- 
perial globe of gold which the pope had given him, and a gold 



reign of Constantine the Great, many large possessions were bestowed 
on the popes for the service of the church. Cenni (Esame di Diploma di 
Ludovico Pio) shows in detail from St. Gregory the Great's epis^es, that 
the Roman see, in his time, enjoyed very large estates, with a very ample 
«ivil jurisdiction, and a power of punishing delinquents in them by 
deputy judges, in Sicily, Calabria, Apulia, Campania, Ravenna, Sabina, 
Dalraatia, Illyricum, Sardinia, Corsica, Liguria, the Alpes Cottiae, and a 
small estate in Gaul. Some of these estates comprised several bishop, 
rics, as appears from St. Gregory, I. 7, ep. 39, Indict, ii. 

'Die Alpes Cottise that belonged to the popes included Genoa and the 
sea-coast from that town to the Alps, the boundaries of Gaul, as Tho- 
ma^in (1. I, de Discipl. Eccl. c. 27, n. 17,) takes notice, and as Baro- 
nius (ad an. 712, p. 9,) proves from the testimony of Oldradus, bishop 
of Milan. And Paul the Deacon writes, that the Lombards seized the 
Alpes Cottiae, which were the estate of the Roman see. ** Patrimonium 
Alpium Cottiarum qusB quondam ad jus pertinuerant apostolicae sedis, 
sed a Longobardis multo tempore fuerant ablataa." (Paul. Diac. 1. 6, c. 
43.) Father Cajetan, in his Isagoge ad Historiam Siculam, points out 
at length the different estates which the Roman see formerly possessed in 
Sicily. The popes were charged with a great share of the care of the 
city and civil government of Rome. St. Gregory the Great mentions 
that it was part of their duty to provide that the city was supplied with 
com, (1. 5, ep. 40, alias 1. 4, ep. 31, ad Maurit.) and that he was obliged 
to watch against the stratagems of the enemies, and the treachery of the 
Roman generals and governors. (1. 5, ep. 42, alias 1. 4, ep. 35.) And 
he appointed Constantius, a tribune, to be governor of Naples. (1. 2, ep. 
11, alias ep. 7*) Anastasius the Librarian testifies that the popes, Sisin. 
nius and Gregory II. both repaired the walls of Rome, and put the city 
in a posture of defence. 

From these and other facts Thomassin observes that the popes had 
then the chief administration of the city of Rome and of the exarchate, 
made treaties of peace, averted wars, defended and recovered cities, and 
repulsed the enemies. (Thomass. de Benefic. 3, part. 1. 1, c. 29, n. 6.) 
"When the Lombards ravaged and conquered the country, the emperors 
continued to oppress the people with exorbitant taxes, yet being busy at 
home against the Saracens, refused to protect the Romans against tlie 
barbarians. Whereupon the people of Italy, in the time of Gregory II. 
In 715, chose themselves in many places leaders and princes, though that 
pope exhorted them every where to remain in their obedience and fidelity 
to the empire, as Anastasius the Librarian assures us : '* Ne desisterent 
ab amore et fide Romani imperii admonebat." 

Leo the Isaurian and his son Constantine Copronymus persecuted the> 
Catholics ; yet Zachary and Stephen II. paid them all due obedience and 
respect in matters relating to the civil government. Leo threatened 
to destroy the holy images and profane the relics of the apostles ut Rome. 
At which news the people of Rome were not to be restrained ; but having 
before received with honour the images of that emperor, according to 
9nBtom9 they, in a fit of sudden fury, pulled them down. Pope Ste* 



174 ST. HENRT II., ElfPBROR. [JULT 15. 

crown enriched with precious stones. He paid his devotions 
in other 'monasteries on the road, leaving in every one of them 
some rich monument of his piety and liberality. But the most 
acceptable offering which he made to God was the fervour and 

phen II. exhorted the emperor to forbear such sacrileges and persecutions, 
and at the same time gave him to understand the danger of exasperating 
the x>opulace, though he did what in him lay to prevent by entreaties 
both the profanations threatened by the emperor, and also the revolt of 
the people : ' * Tunc projecta laureata tua conculcarunt — ^Aisque : Bomam 
mittam, et imaginem S. Petri confringam. — Qadd si quospiam miseris, 
protestamur tibi, innocentes sumus a sanguine quern fusuri sunt." On 
the sacrileges and cruelties exercised by the Iconoclasts in the East, see 
the BoUandists, August ix. To prevent the like at Borne, some of the 
Greek historians say that Pope Gregory U. withdrew himself and all 
Italy from the obedience of the emperor. But Theophanes and the other 
Greeks were in this particular certainly mistaken, as Thomassin takes 
notice. And Natalis Alexander says : (Diss. 1, sssc. 8,) *' This most 
learned pope was not ignorant of the tradition of the fSithers from which 
he never deyiated; for the fathers always taught that subjects are 
bound to obey their princes, though infidels or heretics, in those things 
which belong to the rights of the commonwealth." 

The case was, that when the emperors refused to protect Italy from 
the barbarians, the popes, in the name of the people, who looked upon 
them as their fathers and guardians, and as the h^ of the commonwealth, 
sought protection from the French, as Thomassin observes, (p. 3, de 
Benef. 1, 1, c. 29.) The continuatpr of Fredegarius seems to say, that 
Gregory III. and the Boman people created Charles Martel Patrician of 
Bome, by which title was meant the protection of the church and poor, 
as De Marca (De Concordia, 1. 3, ell, n. 6,) and Pagi explain it from 
Paul the deacon. At least Pope Stephen II. going into France to invite 
Pepin into Italy, conferred on him the title of Patrician, but had not 
recourse to this expedient till the Eastern empire had absolutely aban- 
doned Italy to the swords of the Lombards. Pope Zachary made a peace 
with Luitprand, king of the Lombards, and afterwards a truce with king 
Bachis for twenty years. But that prince putting on the Benedictin habit, 
his brother and successor Astulphus broke the treaty. Stephen n. who 
succeeded Zachary in 752, sent great presents to Astulphus, begging he 
would give peace to the exarchate ; but could not be heard, as Anastasius 
testifies. Whereupon Stephen went to Paris, and implored the protec- 
tion of king Pepin, who sent ambassadors into Lombai^y, requiring that 
. Astulphus would restore what "he had taken from the church of Bome, 
and repair the damages he had done the Bomans. Astulphus refusing to 
comply with these conditions, Pepin led an army into Italy, defeated the 
Lombards, and besieged, and took Astulphus in Pavia ; but generously 
restored him his kingdom on condition he should live in amity with the 
pope. But immediately after Pepin's departure he perfidiously took up 
arms, and in«revenge put every thing to fire and sword in the territories 
of Bome. This obliged Pepin to return into Italy, and Astulphus waa 
again beaten and made prisoner in Pavia. Pepin once more restored him 
his kingdom, but threatened him with death if he ever again took up arms 
against the pope ; and he took from him the exarchate of Bavenna, of 
which the Lombard had made himself master, and he gave it to the hoiy 






JVLY 15.] ST. H£NRT II., EMPEROR. . 175 

purity of affection with which he renewed the consecration of 

his soul to God in all places where he came, especially at the 

'foot of the altars. Travelling through Liege and Triers, he 

arrived at Bamberg, in which city he had lately founded a 

see in 755 asEginhard relates: '*Bedditam sibi Ravennam et Fenta- 
polim, et omnem exarchatum ad Ravennam pertinentem, ad S. Petnim 
tiaditit.'* Eginbard, ib. Thomassin obseryes very justly that Fepiii 
could not give away dominions which belonged to the emperors of Con- 
stantinople ; but that they had lost all right to them after they had suf- 
fered them to be conquered by the Lombards, without sending succours 
during so many years to defend and protect them. These countries 
therefore either by the right of conquest in a just war belonged to Pepin and 
Charlemagne, who bestowed them on the popes ; or the people became 
free, and being abandoned to barbarians had a right to form themselves 
into a new government. See Thomassin (p. 3, de Beneflciis, 1. I, c. 
29, n. 9). 

It is a principle laid down by Puffendorf, Grotius, Fontanini, and others, 
demonstrated by the unanimous consent of all ancients and modems, and 
founded upon the law of nations, that he who conquers a country in a 
just war, nowise untaken for the former possessors, nor in alliance with 
them, is not bound to restore to them what they would not or could not 
protect and defend: *' Illud extra controversiam est, si jus gentium re^ 
spiciamus, qusB hostibus per nos erepta sunt, ea non posse vindicari at 
Ms qui ante hostes nostros ea possederant et amiserant." (Grotius, 1. 3, 
de Jure belli et pads, c. 6, 38.) The Greeks had by their sloth lost the 
exarchate of Ravenna. If Pepin had conquered *the Goths in Italy, or 
the Vandals in Africa before Justinian had recovered those dominions, 
who will pretend that he would have been obliged to restore them to the 
emperors ? Or, if the Britons had repulsed the Saxons after the Romans 
had abandoned them to their fury, might they not have declared them- 
selves a free people ? Or, had not the popes and the Roman people a 
right, when the Greeks refused to afford them protection, to seek it from 
others ? They had long in vain demanded it of the emperors of Con- 
stantinople, before they had recourse to the French. Thus Anastasius 
testifies that Pope Stephen II. had often in vain implored the succours of 
Leo against Astulphus: *'Ut juxta quod ei ssBpius scripserat, cum ex- 
erdtu ad tuendas has ItalisB partes modis omnibus ad venire t." The same 
Anastasius relates, that when the ambassadors of the Greek emperor 
demanded of Pepin the restitution of the countries he had conquered 
trom the I^ombards, that prince answered, that as he had exposed himself 
to the dangers of war merely for the protection of St. Peter's see, not in 
favour of any other person, he never would suffer the apostolic church to 
be deprived of what he had bestowed on it. Pepin gave to the holy see 
the city of Rome and its Campagna ; also the exarchate of Ravenna and 
Fentapolis, comprising Rimini, Pesaro^ Fano, Senigallia, Ancona> 
Gubbio, &c. He retained the office of protector and defender of the 
Roman church under the title of Patrician. When Desiderius, king of 
the Lombards, again ravaged the lands of the church of Rome, Chiurle* 
magne marched into Italy, defeated his forces, and after a long siege 
took Pavia, and extinguished the kingdon: of the Lombards in 773, on 
which occasion he caused himself to be crowned king of Italy, with an 
iron crown, such as the Goths and Lombards in that country had used» 



175 ST. IIENRT II., EMPEROR. [JdLY 15 

rich episcopal see, and had built a most stately cathedral in 
honour of St. Peter, which Pope John XVIII. took a journey 
into Germany to consecrate in 1019. The emperor obtained 
of this pope, by an honourable embassy, the confirmation oi 
this and all his other pious foundations; for he built and 
endowed other churches with the two monasteries at Bamberg,, 
and made the like foundations in several other places ; thus ex- 
tending his zealous views to promote the divine honour and the 
relief of the poor to the end of time. Bruno, bishop of Aus- 
burg, the emperor's brother, Henry, duke of Bavaria, and 
other relations of the saint complained loudly that he employed 
his patrimony on such religious foundations, and the duke of 
JBavaria and some others took up arms against him in 1010 ; 
but he defeated them in the field ; then pardoned the princes 
engaged m the revolt, and restored to them Bavaria and their 
other territories which he had seized. 

The idolatrous inhabitants of Poland and Sclavonia had some 
time before laid waste the diocess of Meersburg, and destroyed 
that and several other churches. St. Henry marched against 
those barbarous nations, and having put his army under the 
protection of the holy martyrs St. Laurence, St. George, and 
St Adrian, who are said to have been seen in the battle fight- 
ing before him, he defeated the infidels. He had made a vow 
to re-establish the see of Meersburg in case he obtained the 
victory, and he caused all his army to communicate the day 
before the battle, .which was fought near that city. The bar- 
barians were seized with a panic fear in the beginning of the 
action, and submitted at discretion. The princes of Bohemia 
rebelled, but were easily brought back to their duty. The vie- 

perhaps as an emblem of strength. Charlemagne confirmed toPopt 
Adrian I. at Rome, the donation of his father Pepin. The emperoi 
Charles the Bald and others ratified and extended the same. Charle- 
magne having been crowned emperor of the West at Rome, by Pope Leo 
III. in 800, Irene who was then empress of Constantinople, acknow, 
ledged him Augustus in 802 ; as did her successor the emperor Nicepho- 
rus UI. The Greeks at the same tkne ratified the partition made of the 
Italian dominions. This point of history has been so much misrepresented 
by some modems, that this note seemed necessary in order to set it in a. 
true light. See Cenni's Monumenta Dominationis Pontificiae, in 4to. 
Rom», 1760. Also Orsi*s Dissertation on this subject ; Cenni's Esam^ 
^ Diploma, &c. and Joe. Assemani, Hist. Ital. Scriptores, t. 3, c. 5. 



July 15.J ' st. henry ii., EMrEROR. 177 

torious emperor munificently repaired and restored the episcopal 
sees of Hildesheim, Magdeburg, Strasburg, Misnia, and Meers- 
burg, and made all Poland, Bohemia, and Moravia tributary 
to the empire. He procured holy preachers to be sent to in- 
struct the Bohemians and Polanders in the faith. Those have 
been mistaken who pretend that St. Henry converted St. Ste- 
phen, king of Hungary, for that prince was bom of Christian 
parents ; but our saint promoted his zealous endeavours, and 
had a great share in his apostolic undertakings for the conver- 
sion of his people. 

The protection of Christendom, and especially of the holy 
see, obliged St. Henry to lead an army to the extremity of 
Italy,* where he vanquished the conquering Saracens, with 
their allies the Greeks, and drove them out of Italy, left a 
governor in the provinces which he had recovered, and suffered 
the. Normans to enjoy the territories which they had then 
wrested from the infidels, but restrained them from turning 
their arms towards Naples or Benevento. He came back by 
Mount Cassino, and was honourably received at Rome ; but 
during his stay in that city, by a painful contraction of the 
sinews in his thigh, became lame and continued so till his 
death. He passed by Cluni, and in the duchy of Luxemburg 
had an interview with Robert, king of France, son and suc- 

* In the partition of the empire between Oharlema^e and Irene, em- 
press of Constantinople, Apulia and Calabria were assigned to the Eastern 
empire, and the rest of Naples .to Charlemagne and his successors. Long 
before this, in the unhappy reign of the Monothelite emperor Constant*, 
about the year 660, the Saracens began to infest Sicily, and soon after 
became masters of that island, and also of Calabria and some other 
parts of Italy. Otho I., surnamed the Great, drove them out of 
Italy, and laid claim to Calabria and Apulia by right of conquest. 
The Greeks soon after yielded up their pretensions to those provinces by 
the marriage of Otho II. to Theophania, daughter of Bomanus, emperor 
of the East, who brought him Apulia and Calabria for her dowry. Yet 
the treacherous Greeks joined the Saracens in those provinces, and again 
expelled the Germans. But in 1008, Tancred, a noble Norman, lord of 
Ilautevilie, with his twelve sons, and a gallant army of adventurers, went 
from Normandy into Apulia, and had great success against the Saracens 
and their confederates the Greeks. From this time the Normans became 
dokes of Calabria, and counts and dukes of Apulia. Robert Guiscard, 
the most valiant Norman duke of Apulia, augmented his power by the 
conquest of Sicily, Naples, and all the lands which lie between that city 
and Latium or the territory of Rome. In 1130, Boger the Norman waa 
caluted by the pope, king of both Sicilies, 



178 8T. HEKRT 11^ ZMFEKO&* [JULT Id. 

cesaor of Hugh Capet* It had been agreed that, to avoid all 
dispates of pre-eminence, the two princes should hold their 
conf^^rence in boats on the river Mense, which, as Glaber 
writes, was at that time the boundary that parted their domi- 
nions ; but Henry, impatient to embrace and cement a friend- 
ship with that great and virtuous king, paid the first visit to 
Kohert in his tent, and afterwards received him in his own. A 
war had broke out between these two princes in 1006, and 
Henry gave the French a great overthrow ; but being desirous 
only to govern his dominions in peace, he entered into nego- 
tiations which produced a lasting peace. In this interview, 
which was held in 1023, the coaference of the two princes 
tamed on the most important aflairs of church and state, and 
on the best means of advancing piety, religion, and the welfare 
of their subjects. After the most cordial demonstrations of 
sincere friendship they took leave of each other, and St. Henry 
proceeded to Verdun and Metz. He made frequent progresses 
through his dominions only to promote piety, enrich all the 
churches, relieve the poor, make a strict inquiry into all public 
disorders and. abuses, and prevent unjust usurpations and op- 
pressions. He desired to have no other heir on earth but Christ 
in his members, and wherever he went he spread the odour of 
his piety, and his liberalities on the poor. 

It is incredible how attentive he was to the smallest affairs 
amidst the multiplicity of business which attends the govern- 
ment of the state ; nothing seemed to escape him ; and whilst 
he was most active and vigilant in every duty which he owed 
to the public, he did not forget that the care of his own soul 
and the regulation of his interior was his first and most essen- 
tial obligation. He was sensible that pride and vain-glory are 
the most dangerous of all vices, and that they are the most dif- 
ficult to be discovered, and the last that are vanquished in the 
spiritual warfare ; that humility is the very foundation of all 
true virtue, and our progress in it the measure of our advance- 

* This Robert loved the church, and was a wise, courageous, and 
le.imed prince. He wrote sacred hymns, and among others that which 
begins, ** O Constantia Martyrom;" also, as some say, the ** Yeni 
8ancte Spiritus, £t emitte coditus," &c. sung in the mass for Whitsun- 
tide. 



July 15.] st. henry ii., emperor- 179 

ment in Christian perfection. Therefore, the higher he was ex- 
alted in worldly honours the more did he study to humhle him- 
aelf, and it is said of him, that never was greater humility seen 
under a diadem. He loved those persons best who most freely 
put him in mind of his mistakes, and these he was always most 
ready to confess, and to make for them the most ample repara- 
tion. Through misinformations, he for some time harboured 
coldness towards St. Herebert, archbishop of Cologn ; but dis- 
covering the innocence and sanctity of that prelate, he fell at 
his feet, and would not rise till he had received his absolution 
and pardon. He banislied flatterers from his presence, calling 
them the greatest pests of courts ; for none can put such an 
affront on a man's judgment and modesty, as to praise him to 
his face, but the base and most wicked of interested and de- 
signing men, who make use of this artifice to insinuate them- 
selves into the favour of a prince, to abuse his weakness and 
credulity, and to make him the dupe of their injustices. He 
who listens to them exposes himself to many misfortunes and 
crimes, to the danger of the most foolish pride and vain-glory, 
and to the ridicule and scorn of his flatterers themselves ; for a 
vanity that can publicly hear its own praises, openly unmasks 
itself to its confusion. The Emperor Sigismund giving a flat* 
terer a blow on the face, called his fulsome praise the greatest 
insult that had ever been ofiered him. St. Henry was raised by 
religion and humility above this abjectness of soul which reason 
itself teaches us to abhor and despise. By the assiduous morti- 
fication of the senses he kept his passions in subjection ; for 
pleasure, unless we are guarded against its assaults, steals upon 
us by insensible degrees, smooths its passage to the heart by a 
gentle and insinuating address, ^d softens and disarms the 
soul of all its strength. Nor is it possible for us to triumph 
over unlawful sensiial delights, unless we moderate and prac- 
tise frequent self-denials with regard to lawful gratifications. 
The love of the world is a no less dangerous enemy, especially 
amidst honours and affluence ; and created objects have this 
quality that they first seduce the heart, and then blind the 
understanding. By conversing always in heaven, St. Henry 
raised his affections so much above the earth as to escape this 
snare. 



180 ST. HENRY n., EMPEROR. [JuLY 15. 

Prayer seemed the chief delight and support of his soul ; es- 
pecially the public office of the church. Assisting one day at 
this holy function at Strasburg, he so t jnestly desired to re- 
main always there to sing the divine praises among the devout 
canons of that church, that, finding this impossible, he founded 
there a new canonry for one who should always perform that 
sacred duty in his name. In this spirit of devotion it has been 
established that the kings of France are canons of Strasburg, 
Lyons, and some other places ; as in the former place the em- • 
perors, in the latter the dukes of Burgundy, were before them. 
The holy sacrament of the altar and sacrifice of the mass wyre 
the object of St. Henry's most tender devotion. The blessed 
Mother of God he honoured as his chief patroness, and among 
other exercises by which he recommended himself to her inter- 
cession, it was his custom, upon coming to any town, to spend 
a great part of the first night in watching and priayer in some 
church dedicated to God under her name, as at Rome in St. 
Mary Major. He had a singular devotion to the good angels 
and to all the saints. Though he lived in the world so as to be 
perfectly disengaged from it in heart and afiection, it was his 
earnest desire entirely to renounce it long- before his death, and 
he intended to pitch upon the abbey of St. Vanne, at Verdun, 
for the place of his retirement ; but he was diverted from car- 
rying this project into execution, by the advice of Richard the 
holy abbot of that house.* He had married St Cunegonda, 
but lived with her in perpetual chastity, to which they had 
mutually bound themselves by vow. It happened that the em- 
press was falsely accused of incontinency, and St. Henry was 
somewhat moVed by the slander ; but she cleared herself by her 
oath, «nd by the ordeal trials, walking over twelve red hot 
plough-shares without hurt. Her husband severely condenmed 
himself for his credulity, and made her the most ample satis- 
faction. In his last ifiness he recc^nmended her to her relations 

• At the entry of the cloister of St. Vanne at Verdun is hung a pic- 
ture, in which the Emperor St. Henry is represented laying down his 
sceptre and crown, and asking the monastic habit of the holy abbot 
Richard. The abbot required of him a promise of obedience, then com- 
manded him to resume the government of the empire, upon which a dis- 
tich was made, in which it is said : The emr^ror came hither to live lA 
obedience ; and he practises this lesson by ruling, 



July 15.] 8t. plechelm, b c. 181 

and friends, declaring that he left her an untouched virgin. 
His health decayed some years before his death, which happened 
at the castle of GronCj^ near Halberstadt, in 1024, on the 14th 
of July, towards the end of the fifty-second year of his life : 
he having reigned twenty-two years from his election, andter 
years and five months from his coronation at Rome. His body 
was interred in the cathedral at Bamberg, with the greatest 
pomp, and with the unfeigned tears of all his subjects. The 
great number of miracles by which God was pleased to declare 
his glory in heaven, procured his canonization, which was per^ 
formed byEugenius III. in 1152. His festival is kept on the 
day following that of his death.* 

Those who by honours, dignities, riches, or talents are raised . 
by God in the world above the level of their fellow-creatui^s, 
have a great stewardship, and a most rigorous account to give 
at the bar of divine justice, their very example having a most 
powerful influence over others. This St. Fulgentius observed, 
writing to Theodoras, a pious Roman senator :(1) " Though," 
Baid he, " Christ died for all men, yet the perfect conversion of 
the great ones of the world brings great acquisitions to the king- 
dom of Christ And they who are placed in high stations must 
necessarily be to very many an occasion of eternal perdition or 
of salvation. And as th^y cannot go alone, so either a high de- 
gree of glory or an extraordinary punishment wil) be their ever- 
lasting portion/' 

ST. PLECHELM, B. C. APOSTLE OF GUELDERLAND 

He was by birth a noble English Saxon, but born in the 
southern part of Scotland ; for Lothian and the rest of the 
Lowlands as far as Edinburgh frith belonged for several ages 

(1) S. Fulgent, ep. 6. 

* BaroniuB and some otiiors call St. Henry the first emperor of that 
name, because Henry I. or llie Fowler, was never crowned by the Fopa 
at Rome ; without which ceremony some Italians style an emperor only 
king of Germany or emperor elect ; though Charles Y . was the last that 
frae so crowned at Borne St. Henry on his death-bed recommended to 
Ihe princes Conrad the Salic, duke of Franconia, who was accordingly 
ciiosen emperor, was crowned at Rome in 1027, reigned with great piety 
and glory, and wa« buried in the cathedral diurch at Spire, which he 
had built near his own palace. He was succeeded by his son Henry tha 
Black or UI. 



tar. 



182 ST. PLGCHELM, B. C. [JPLT 15. 

to the Northumbrian English. Haying receiveu holy orders in 
his own Country he made a pilgrimage to Borne, whence he re- 
turned home enriched with holy relics. Some time after, in 
company with the holy bishop St. Wiro, and St. Otger a dea- 
con, he passed into those parts of Lower Germany which had not 
then received the light of faith. Having obtained the protection 
of Pepin, mayor of the palace in Austrasia, he converted the 
country now called Guelderknd, Cleves, Juliers, and several 
neighbouring provinces lying chiefly between the Rhine, the 
Wahal, and the Meuse. When he hajl planted the gospel there 
with great success he retired to St. Peter's Mount near Bure- 
mund, but continued to make frequent missions among the re« 
maining infidels. Prince Pepin, who thpugh he had formerly 
fallen into adultery, led afterwards a penitential and Christian 
holy life, went every year from his castle of Herstal to confess 
his sins to this holy pastor after the death of St. Wiro, which 
the author of St Plechelm's life relates in the following words :(1) 
" Pepin, the king of the French, (that is, mayor with royal au- 
thority,) had him in great veneratioD, and every year, in the 
beginning of Lent, having laid aside his purple, went from his 
palace barefoot to the said mount of Peter where the saint lived, 
and took his advice how he ought to govern his kingdom ac- 
cording to the holy will and law of G^, and by what means he 
might promote the faith of Christ and every advantage of virtue. 
There also having made the confession of his sins to the high 
priest of the Lord, and received penance, he washed away with 
his tears the offences which through human frailty he had con- 
tracted.'' F. Bosch, the BoUandist, observes, this prince must 
have been Pepin, sumamed of Herstal, or the Fat^ who though 
he never enjoyed the title of king, reigned in Austrasia with 
regal power, and with equal piety and valour. He died in 714, 
in the castle of Jopil on the Mouse, near Liege, which was his 
paternal estate, St. Pepin of Landon his grandfather being son 
of Carloman, the first mayor of this family, grandson of Charles 
count of Hesbay near Liege, the descendant of Ferreol, for- 
merly praefectus-prsBtorio of the Ganls. St. Plechelm survived 
Pepin of Herstal seventeen years, is called by Bollandus bishop 
of Oldenzel and Buremund, and died on the 15th of July, 732. 

(1) N. 11. p. 69. 



JULT 15.] ST. PLECHELM, B. a 183 

He was buried in our lady's chapel in the church, on the moun* 
tain of St. Peter, now called of St Odilia, near Ruremund 
His relics were honoured with many miracles. The principal 
portion of them is now possessed by the collegiate church of 
Oldenzel, in the province of Over-Yssel, part at Buremund. 
His name is famous in the Beigic and other Martyrologies. Hi» 
ancient life testifies that he was ordained bishop in his own 
country before he undertook a missionary life. Bede, in the 
year 731, mentions Fechthelm, who having been formeriy a 
disciple of St Aldhelm, in the kingdom of the West-Saxons, 
returning to his own country was ordained bishop to preach the 
gospel with more authority. He afterwards fixed his see at 
Candida Casa, now a parliamentary town of Galloway in Scot- 
land, called Whitehom. The Bollandists in several parts of 
their work contend this Pechthelm to have been a difierent p6r- 
son from St Flechelm, whom Stilting demonstrates to have 
been at Mount St Peter, whilst the other, somewhat elder ac- 
cording to Bede, was in North-Britain at Candida Casa ; though 
Antony Pagi(l) and the author of Batavia Sacra endeavour to 
prove him, against F. Bosch and his coUegues, to have been the 
same See his authentic life with the remarks of BoUandus 
and his colleagues, Julij, t. 4, p. 58, and Batavia Sacra, p. 50.* 

(1) Critic. Hist. Chron. ad an. 734, n. 4. 

* Our saint's colleague St. Wire (in Irish Bearaidlie) is honoured cm 
the 8th of May. By the Four Masters he is styled Ahhot of Dublin; 
but with the Irish annalists, bishop and abbot are generally synonymous 
terms. He died in 650. See Ware. 

St. Plechelm's other fellow-missionary, St. Otger, is honoured on the 
lOtii of September ; he is always styled deacon, by which it appears that 
he was never promoted to the priesthood. From his name and other dr- 
eumstances it is thought he was an English-Saxon. though from the 
north, probably the southern parts of Scotland anciently subject to the 
kings of the Northumbers. Being desirous to accompany SS. Wiro and 
Plechdm to Rome, and in their apostolic missions into Germany, when 
Pepin gave the Mount of St. Peter or of St. Odilia to St. Wiro, the 
three saints settled there together, and ended their days in that monas. 
tery. Whether St. Otger outlived St. Plechelm is uncertain. AU three 
were buried in the monastery of Berg, or of Mount St. Peter or St. 
Odilia; and their bodies remained there till, in 858, that monastery was 
given by King Lothaire to Hunger, bishop of Utrecht, when the greater 
part of these relics was translated to Utrecht. Part stall remained in the 
church of Berg till, with the chapter of canons, it was removed to Rure- 
mund. These relics were hid some time in the civil wars for fear of the 
Calvinists. but discovered in 1594, and pUced again above the high 



184 ST. swiTHiir, B. c. [Jolt IS* 

ST. SWITHIN OR SWITHUN, C. 

BISHOP AKB PATBON OP WINCHESTER. 

This city had been famous in the time of the Romans, and a 
station of their troops being called by Ptolemy and Antoninus, 
Venta. It became afterwards the chief seat of the West- Saxon 
kings. Among these, Kynegils, having received the faith 
about the year 635, gave to St. Birinus the city of Dorcester 
for his episcopal see, but founded a church at Winchester, 
which was dedicated by St Birinus to St. Feter^ according to 
the Saxon Chronicle, or to the Holy Trinity, according to 
Thomas Rudbum. Wini, the third bishop of the West- Saxons, 
fixed his see at Winchester, and this church became one of the 
most flourishing cathedrals of all Britain. St Swithun, called 
in the original Saxon language Swithum, received in this 
church the clerical tonsure, and put on the monastic habit in 
the Old Monastery, which had been founded by king Kynegils. 
He was of noble parentage, passed his youth in innocent sim- 
plicity, and in the study of grammar, philosophy, and the holy 
scriptures. He was an accomplished model of all virtues when 
he was promoted to holy orders by Helinstan or Helmstan, 
bishop of Winchester. 

Being ordained priest, he was made provost or dean of the 
Old Monastery. His learning, piety, and prudence moved Eg- 
bert, king of the West- Saxons, to make him his priest, under , 
which title the saint subscribed a charter granted to the abbey 
of Croyland in 833. That great prince committed to his care 
the education of his son Ethelwolf, and made use of his counsels 
in the government of his kingdom. A degeneracy of manners 
had crept into the courts of the Mercians and Northumbrians, 
and their government was weakened by intestine divisions and 
several revolutions. Egbert having first vanquished Swithred 
king of the East- Saxons, and added his kingdom to his own, 
upon several provocations, invaded Mercia, and conquered it in 

altar. The portion at Utrecht was aUo hid for a tune for fear of the 
Normans ; but found and exposed to public veneration again hy Bishop 
Baldric. See the life of St. Otger, with notes by Boliandus, and the 
additional disquisitions of Stilting, ad \0 Sept t 2, p. 612. 



JUI-Y 15.] ST. 8WITHIN, B. C 185 

828, but soon after restored Withlaf, whom he had expelled, to 
the throne of that kingdom on condition he should hold the 
crown of him, and pay him an annual tribute. He treated in 
the same manner Eandred, the last king of the Northumbers, 
find made him tributary, after he had with a great army laid 
waste that province. The kingdom of the East Angles sub- 
mitted to him about the same time with-Mercia, with which it 
had been long engaged in war, and was thereby reduced to ex- 
treme poverty. Kent being at that time tributary to Mercia, 
it fell also to the share of the conqueror. After this Egbert 
assembled all the great men of his kingdom both clergy and 
laity, in a council at Wincester, in which he enacted that this 
kingdom should ever after be called England, and all its sub* 
}ects Englishmen. At the same time he was again crowned 
and from that year, 829, was styled king of England. Thus 
were the names of Saxons and Jutes abolished among us, and 
an end was put to the heptarchy, or division of this nation into 
seven kingdoms, which began to be formed by Hengist in 457, 
when he took the title of king, seven years after his arrival in 
this island, in 449* Towards the latter end of Egbert's reign 
the Danes first began to infest England. This general name 
historians give to those shoals of pirates which were composed 
not only of Danes, but also of Norwegians, Goths, Sweones or 
Swedes, and Yandals, as Eginhard, Henry of Huntingdon, and 
others assure us.* 

King Egbert reigned thirty^seven years over the West 
Saxons, and nine years over all England, dying in the year 838, 
or according to others in 837. Ethelwolf, his only surviving 
son, had been educated in piety and learning under the care of 
St. Swithin, then provost of the Old Monastery in Winchester,f 
and had been ordained subdeacon by bishop Helmstan, as Bud* 

• The barbarians who inhabited the northern coasts of the Baltic were 
called by one general name, Normans; and the Sclayi, Vandals, and 
divers other nations were settled on the southern coast, as Eginhard, 
Helniold, and others testifj, 

t The authorities produced by Tho. Rudbum, a monk of the Old 
Monastery in Winchester, in 1450, to prove St. Swithun to have been 
pome time public professor of divinity at Cambridge, are generally 
esteemed suppositious. SeeRudburn, 1. 3, c. 2, Hist. Maj. Wintoniensis, 
apod lyharton, Anglia Sacra, and the History of th^i University of Ca^lf 



186 ST. S WITHIN, B. C. [JULT 15. 

burn, Huntingdon, and others relate. But upon the death of 
his elder brother, whose name is not known, he was dispensed 
with by Pope Leo to marry, and returning again to a secular 
life, helped his father in his wars, and after his death was ad- 
vanced to the throne. He married Osberge, a lady of remark- 
able piety, and had four sons by her, Ethelbald, Ethelbright, 
£thelred, and Alfred. He governed his kingdom by the pru- 
dent advice of Alstan bishop of Shirbome, in temporal affairs ; 
and by that of St. Swithin in ecclesiastical matters, especially 
those which concerned his own soul. And though the king was 
of a slow disposition, yet by the assistance of these worthy coun- 
sellors, he reigned prudently and happily ; the Danes were often 
repulsed, and many noble designs for the good of the church 
and state were begun, and prosperously executed. Bearing 
always the greatest reverence to St. Swithin, whom he called 
his master and teacher, he procured him, upon the death of 
Helmstan, to be chosen bishop of Winchester, to which see he 
was consecrated by Ceolnoth, archbishop of Canterbury, in 852. 
Heame has given us the profession of faith which he made on 
that occasion, according to custom, in the hands of the arch- 
bishop.(l) William of Malmesbuiy says, that though this good 
bishop was a rich treasure of all virtues, those in which he took 
most delight were humility and charity to the poor ; and in the 
dischai^e of his episcopal functions he omitted nothing belong- 
ing to a true pastor. He built divers churches, and repaired 
others ; and made his journeys on foot, accompanied with his 
clerks, and often by night to avoid ostentation. Being to dedi- 
cate any church, he with all humility used to go barefoot to the 
place. His feasting was not with the rich, but with the needy 
and the poor. His mouth was always open to invite sinners tci 
repentance, and to admonish those who stood to beware of fall- 
ing. He was most severe to himself, and abstemious in his .diet, 
never eating to satisfy his appetite, but barely to sustain nature ; 
and as to sleep, he admitted no more than what after long watch- 
ing and much labour was absolutely necessary. He was always 
delighted with psalms and spiritual canticles, and in conversa- 
tion would bear no discourse brt what tended to edification. 
By his counsel and advice King Ethelwolf, in a My<pel sy- 

(1) Hearne, Teat. Boffens, p. 269. 



July 15. J st. swithin, b. c. 187 

nod, or great council of the nation, in 854, enacted a new law 
by which he gave the tithes, or tenth part of his land, through- 
out the kingdom to the church, exempt and free from all taxa- 
tions and burthens, with an obligation of prayers in all churches 
for ever for his own soul, on every Wednesday, &c. This 
charter, to give it a more sacred sanction, he oflfered on the al- 
tar of St. Peter at Rome in the pilgrimage which he made to 
that city in 855. He likewise procured it to be confirmed by 
the pope.(l) He carried with him to Rome his youngest and 
best beloved son, Alfred, rebuilt there the school for the Eng- 
lish, and ordered to be sent every year to Rome one hundred 
mancuses* for the pope, one hundred for the church of St. Pp- 
ter, and as much for that of St. Paul, to furnish them with 
lights on Easter Eve. He extended the Romescot, or Peter- 
pence, to his whole kingdom. He reigned two years after his 
return from Rome, and died in 857* He ordained that 
throughout all his own hereditary lands every ten families shall 
maintain one poor person with meat, drink, and apparel ; from 
whence came the corrodies, which still remain in divers places. 
St. Swithin departed to eternal bliss, which he had always 
thirsted after, on the 2d of July, 862, in the reign of King 
Ethelbert. His body was buried, according to his order, in 
the churchyard, where his grave might be trodden on by pas- 
sengers. 

About one hundred years after, in the days of King Edgar 
his relics were taken up by St Ethelwold, then bishop of Win- 
chester, and translated into the church in 964. On which oc- 
casion Malmesbury affirms that such a number of miraculous 
cures of all kinds were wrought, as was never in the memory 
of man known to have been in any other place. Lanirid, in 
the original Saxon Lantfred, called by Leland an illustrious 
doctor, being then a monk at Winchester, wrote, in 980, a 
history of this translation, and of the miraculous cures of a blind 
man, and many others, through the intercession of this saint, 
i^hich history has never been printed : though we have two 

0) See Ingulph. Asser. Bedhome. 

* Tlie value of a mancuse is not known; it is thought to have t>oen 
about the same with that of a mark. 



188 ST. swiTHiN, B. a [July 15, 

beautiful fair manuscript copies of it, ihe one in the Cotton, 
the other in tlie king's library in the inclosure of Westminster 
Abbey.* In the reign of William the Conqueror, Walkelyn, 
bishop of Winchester, a Norman, and the king's relation, laid 
the foundation of the new church in 1079, which he lived to 
finish with the abbey, so that in 1093, the monks, in the pre- 
sence of almost all the bishops and abbots of England, came in 
great joy from the old to the new monastery, and on the feast 
of St. Swithin, the shrine of this saint was in another solemn 
procession translated from the old to the new church ; and on 
the next day the bishop's men began to demolish the old abbey. 
William of Wickham, the celebrated chancellor of England in 
the reign of Edward III., and founder of a great college in 
Oxford, in 1379, added the nave and west front to this cathe- 
dral, which is now standing. This church was first dedicated 
to the Holy Trinity, under the patronage of St. Peter ; after- 
wards by St Ethelwold, in presence of King Etheldred, St. 
Dunstan, and eight other bishops, to St. Swithin, as Redburn 
relates, in 980.(1) King Henry VIII., in 1540, commanded 
this cathedral to be called no longer St. Swithin's, but of* the 
Holy Trinity.f 

(1) Hist. Major. Wintom. p. 223. Vita ihetrice S. Swithuni per Wol- 
stanom monachum Winton. ib. 2. 



;:t: 



* Casleu and B. Nicholson falsely Call this the life of St. Swithin ; and 
it appears from Leland that Lantfred nerer wrote his life, which himself 
pufflciently declares in the historj' of his miracles. The contrary seems 
a mistake in Fits, Bale, and Thomas Budbum, p. 5223. Budbum mani- 
festly confounds Wolstan with Lantfred. 

f At the east end of this cathedral is the place which in ancient times 
was esteemed most sacred, underneath which was the cemetery or resting 
place of numy saints and kings who were interred there witii great ho. . 
nour. At present behind the high altar there is a transTersewall, against 
which we see the marks where several of their statues, being very small, 
were placed, with their names under each pedestal in a row ; *' Kinglisus 
Bex. S. Birinus Ep. Kingwald Bex. Egbertus B. Adulphus (t. e, Ethel, 
wolphus) B. Elured B. Alius ejus. Edwardus B. junior Adhelstanus B. 
iilius ejus (Sta. Maria D. Jesus in the middle.) Edredus B. Edgarus B. 
Alwynus Ep. Ethelred B. Cnutus B. Hardeoanutus B. fiUus ejus," fto. 
Underneath, upon a fillet were written these verses : 

" Corpora Sanctorum hic sunt in pace sepulta ; 
Ex Meritis quorum fulgent miracula multa.** 

At the foot of these,: a little eastwards, is a large flat grave-stone, 
whidi had the effigies of a bishop in brass, said to be that of St. Swithin. 
See Lord Clarendon, and Samud Gale, On the Antiquities of Wiucbeste^ ; 

pp. 29, 30, 



JVLY 15. J 8T. S WITHIN, B. C. 189 

St. Swithin is commemorated in the Roman martyrology on 
the 2d of July, which was the day of his death ; but his chief 
festival in England was on the 15th of the same month, the 
day of the translation of his relics. See the calendar prefixed 
to the chronicle entitled Scala Mundi in a fair MS. in folk) in 
the library of the English college at Douay ; also the Sarum 
breviary and missaL An arm of St. Swithin was kept in the 
abbey of Peterborough, as is mentioned by Hugh Candidus, or 
White, in his accurate history of that monastery, published by 
Mr. Spark, p. 1723. The abbey of Hyde was first built within 
the precincts of the cathedral by King Edward the Elder, in 
pursuance of his father, Alfred's, will, for secular canons, over 
whom St. Grimbald was intended to preside, had not his death 
prevented it. These canons, after sixty years' continuance, 
yielded this church to the monks whom, in 964, St. Ethelwold 
brought in ; from which time this abbey was called Newminster 
till it was translated by King Henry I. and the Bishop William 
Giffard, to a place near the walls of the city called Hyde. Of 
this magnificent abbey not so much as the walls are left stand- 
ing, though in it lay the remains of King Edward, his son Al- 
fixid, his daughter St. Eadburga, &c. Its church was dedicated 
to the Holy Trinity, St Peter, and St. Grimbald. See the 
short life of St. Swithin, written by Wolstan, a monk of Win- 
chester, dedicated to St. Elphege, then bishop of that city, in 
1001, but translated to Canterbury in 1006. It is published 
by Mabillon, saec. 5. Ben. p. 628. See also Malmesbury, t. 2. 
de Pontif. Robert of Glocester*s Chronicle in verse, published 
by Mr. Heme. Thomas Rudburn, Historia Major Win- 
toniensis, published by Wharton, t. 1. p. 200. Lord Claren- 
don, and Sam. Gale, on the Antiquities of Winchester, and 
Pinius the BoUandisl, t. 1. Julij, ad diem 2. p. 321. Also, 
S. Swithuni vita et miracula perLamfridum monachum Wlnton. 
MSS. in Bibl. Regia Londini xv. c. vii. 1. 



vox- VTI. 



190 BT. EUSTATHIU8, B. C. |*.TuLY \6. 

JULY XVI. 
ST. EUSTATHIUS, CONFESSOR, 

PATRIARCH OF AKTIOCH. 

From St. Athanasius, Sozomen, Theodoret, 1. 1, Hist. c. 6, St Jerom, 
in CatAl. c. 85. See Tillem. t. 7, p. 21. Ceillier, t. 4, and the Bol- 
landists, Bosch in his Life, t. 4. Jul. p. 130, and Solier in Hist. Cliron. 
Patr. Antioch. «Dte, t. 4, Jul. p. 35. 

A.D. 338 

St. Eustathius was a native of Sida, in Pamphylia, and 
with heroic constancy cotifessed the faith of Christ before the 
pagan persecutors, as St. Athanasius assures us,(l) though it 
does not appear whether this happened under Dioclesian or Li- 
Oinius. . He was learned, eloquent, and eminently endowed 
with all virtue, especially an ardent zeal for the purity of our 
holy faith. Being made bishop of Beraea, in Syria, he began 
in that obscure see to be highly considered in the church, inso- 
much that St. Alexander, of Alexandria, wrote to him in par- 
ticular against Arius and his impious writings, in 323. Su 
Philogonius, bishop of Antioch, a prelate illustrious for his 
confession of the faith, in the persecution of Licinius, died in 
323. One Faulinus succeeded him, but seems a man not equal 
to the functions of that high station ; for, during the short 
time he governed that church, tares began to grow up among 
the good seed. To root these out, when that dignity became 
again vacant, in 324, the zeal and abilities of St. Eustathius 
were called for, and he was accordingly translated to this see^ 
.•n dignity the next to Alexandria, and the third in the world. 
He vigorously opposed the motion, but was compelled to ac- 
quiesce. Indeed, translations of bishops, if made without co- 
gent reasons of necessity, become, to many, dangerous temp- 
tations of ambition and avarice, and open a door to those fatal 
vices into the sanctuary. To put a bar to this evil, St. Eusta- 
thius, in the same year, assisting at the general council of 
Nice, zealously concurred with his fellow bishops to forbid for 
the time to come all removals of bishops from one see to ano- 

(1) Hist. Arian ad Monachos, p. 346. 



J: 1 Y If).] ST. EUSTATIIirs, B. C. 1^1 

ther.(l) The new patriarch distinguished himself in that ve- 
nerable assembly by his zeal against Arianisra. Soon after his 
return to Antioch he held a council there to unit« his church, 
which he found divided by factions. He was very sU-ict and 
severe in examining into the characters of those whom he ad- 
mitted into the clergy, and he constantly rejected all those 
whose principles, faith, or manners appeared suspected ; among 
whom were several who became afterwards, ringleaders of 
Arianism. Amidst his external employs for the service of 
others, he did not forget that charity must always begin at 
home, and he laboured in the first place to sanctify his own 
soul ; but after watering his own garden he did .not confine the 
stream there, but let it fiow abroad to enrich the neighbouring 
soil, and to dispense plenty and fruitfulness all around. He 
sent into other diocesses that were subject to his patriarchate, 
men capable of instructing and encouraging the faithful. Eu- 
fiebius, archbishop of Csosarea, in Palestine, (which church 
was, in some measure, subject to Antioch,) favoured the new 
Tieresy, in such a manner as to alarm the zeal of our saint.* 
Tlus raised a violent storm against him. 

• (1) Cone. Nic»n. Can. 15. 

• That prelate had been o<iucated at Ciesarea, where he studied with 
St. Pamphilus the martyr, whose name he afterwards added to his own. 
He suffered imprisonment with him for the faith about the year 309, but 
recovered his liberty without undergoing any severer trial, and was chosen 
archbishop of Casarea in 314. When Anus, in 320, retired from Alex- 
andria into Palestine, having been deposed from the priesthood by St. Alex, 
ander the year before, Eusebius of Csesarea and some other bishops were 
imposed upon by him, and received him favourably. Hereupon Arias 
wrote to Eusebius of Nicomedia, whom he calls brother to the other 
Eusebius of Csssarea. Eusebius of Nicomedia was at that time of an ad- 
vanced age, and had great interest with Constantine, who after the defeat 
of liicinius kept his court some time at Nicomedia as other emperors had 
done before him since Dioclesian had begun to reside in the East. This 
prelate was crafty and ambitious ; his removal, procured by his intrigues, 
from his first see of Berytus to Nicomedia seems to have given occasion 
to the canon of the Nicene council, by which such translations were 
forbidden. Notwithstanding which, in defiance of so sacred a law, he after, 
wards procured himself to be again translated to the see of Constantino. 
pie, in 838, in the beginning of the reign of Constantius. The council 
of Sardica, in 347, confirmed the above-mentioned Nicene canon under 
pain of the parties being deprived even of lay communion at their death ; but 
this arch-heretic died in 342. He openly defended not only the person, 
but also the errors of Arius ; subscribed the definitions of the Nicene 
eouncil for fear of banishment ; but three months after, being the author 



L 



192 ST. EUSTATHIUS, B. C. [JuLY l6 

Eusehius of Nioomedia laid a deep plot with his Arian 
friends to remove St. Eustathius from Antioch, who had at- 
tacked Eusebius of Csesarea, and accused him of altering the 
Nicene Creed. Hereupon, Eusebius of Nicomedia, pretendinj» 

of new tumults, he was banished by Constantine, and after three yeari^ 
recalled, upon giving a confession of faith in which he declared himself 
penitent, and professed that he adhered to the Nicene faith, as Theodo- 
ret relates. By this act of dissimulation he imposed upon the emperor, 
but he continued by every base art to support his heresy, and endea- 
voured to subvert the truth. Eusebius of Caesarea held that see from 314 
till his death iii 339. He was always closely linked with the rmgleaders 
of the heresy. Nevertheless, the learned Henry Valois, in his Prole^ 
gomena to his translation of this author's Ecclesiastical History, pretends 
to excuse him from its errors, though he often boggled at the word Con- 
substantial. He certainly was so far imposed upon by Arius, as to be-? 
lieve that heretic admitted the eternity of the Divine Word ; and in his 
writings many passages occur which prove the divinity and, as to the 
sense, the consubstantiality of the Son, whatever difficulties he formed 
as to the word. On which account Ceillier and many others affect to 
speak favourably, or at least tenderly of Eusebius in this respect, and 
are willing to believe that he did not at least constantly adhere to that 
capital error. Yet it appears very dilUcult entirely to clear him from it, 
though he may seem to have attempted to steer a course between the 
tradition of the church and the novelties of his friends. See Baronius ad 
an. 380, Witasse Nat. Alexander, and the late Treatise in folio, against 
the Arian heresy, compiled by a Maurist Benedictin monk. Photius, in 
a certain work given us by Montfaucon, (in Bibl. Ooisliana, p. 348,) 
roundly charges Eusebius with Arianism and Origenism. 

Eusebius, whose conduct was so inconstant and equivocal, shines to 
most advantage in his works, especially those which he composed in de- 
fence of Christianity before the Arian contest arose. The first of these 
is his book against Hierocles, who, under Dioclesian, was a persecuting 
judge at Nicomediiv, j^d afterwards rewarded for his cruelty against the 
Christians with the government of Egypt. In a book he wrote he made 
Apollonius Tyanaeus superior to Christ. But Eusebius demonstrates the 
history of this magician, written by Philostratus, when he taught rheto- 
ric at Home, one hundred years after the death of that magician, to be 
false and contradictory in most of its points, doubtful in others, and 
trifling in all. About the time he was made bishop he conceived a design 
of two works, which showed as much the greatness of his genius, as the 
execution did the extent of his knowledge. The first of these he called 
The Preparation, the other The Demonstration of the Gospel. In the 
first he, with great erudition, confutes idolatry, in fifteen books, showing 
that the Greeks borrowed the sciences and many of their gods from the 
Egyptians, whose true history agrees with that of Moses ; but the fic- 
tions of their theology are monstrous, impious, and condemned by their 
own learned men ; that their oracles, which were only a chain of impos- 
tures and frauds, or the responses of devils, never attained to any infal- 
lible knowledge of contingencies, and were silenced by a power which 
they acknowlSged superior. He also shows the Unity of God, and the 
truth of his revealed religion as ancient as the world. In his Demon- 
lotion of the Gospel, in ten books, he shows that thp Jeyrish layr ^n 



July 16.} st* eustathius, b. c. 193 

a great desire to see the city of Jerusalem, set out in great state, 
taking with him his confidant, Theognis of Nice. At Jerusa- 
lem thej met Eusebius of Caesarea, Patrophilus of Scythopolis, 
Aetius of Lydda, Theodotus of Laodicea, and several others, 

every point clearly points out Christ and the prospel. Tliese books of 
Evangelical Preparation and Demonstration furnish more proofs, testi. 
monies, and arguments for the truth of the Christian religion than any 
other work of the ancients on that siibject. 

Eusebius's two books against Marcellus of Ancyra, and three On £c. 
clesiastical Theology are a confutation of Sabellian'ism. His topography 
or alphabetical explication of the places mentioned in the Old TCsta. 
ment, is most exact and useful. It was translated into Latin, and aug- 
mented by St. Jerom. Eusebius's useful Comments on the Psalms were 
published by Montfaucon. (Collect. Nova Script. Gra3c. Paris, 1706.) 
His fourteen Discourses or Opuscula, pubUshed by F. Sirmond, (Op. 
Sirmond, t. 1,) are esteemed genuine, though not mentioned by the 
ancients. His discourse on the Dedication of the Church at Tyre, re- 
built after the persecution, in 3] 5, contains a curious description of that 
ceremony and of the structure. By his letter to his Church of Csesarea, 
after the conclusion of the council of Nice, he recommended to his flock 
the definitions and creed of that assembly. His panegyric of Constan- 
tine was delivered at Constantinople in presence of that prince, who then 
celebrated the thirtieth year of Ws reign by public games. The praises 
are chiefly drawn from the destruction of idolatry ; but study reigns in 
this composition more than nature, and renders the discourse tedious, 
though the author took some pains to polish the style. His four books 
of the Life of Constantine were written in 338, the year after that em- 
peror*8 death. The style is difiusive, and the more disagreeable by being 
more laboured. Photius reproaches the author for dissembling or sup- 
pressing the chief circumstances relating to Arius, and his condenmation 
in the council of Nice. 

The Chronicle of Eusebius was a work of immense labour, in two 
parts ; the flrst called his Chronology, contained the distinct successions 
of the kings and rulers of the principal nations from the beginning of 
the world ; the second part, called the Chronicle or the Rule of Times, 
may be called a table of the flrst, and unites all the particular chronolo. 
gies of different nations in one. This second part was translated into 
Latin, and augmented by St. Jerom. The first part was lost when Joseph 
Scaliger gathered the scattered fragments from George Syncellus, Ce- 
drenus, and the Alexandrian Chronicle; but Scaliger ought to have 
pointed out his sources ; and has inserted many things which certainly 
belong not to Eusebius. 

Our author's name has been rendered most fkmous by his ten books of 
Church History, which he brings down to the defeat of Licinius, in 323, 
when he first wrote it, though he revised it again in 326. He collected 
the Acts of the Martyrs of Palestine, an abstract of which he added to 
the eighth book of his History. Bufinus elegantly translated this work 
into Latin, reduced to nine books, to which he added two others, wherein 
he brings down his history to the death of Theodosius. Eusebius copied 
very much Julius Africanus in his Chronicle ; and in his History, St. 
Hegesippos (who had compiled a History from Christ to 170) and others. 
This invaluable work is not exemut from some mistakes and capital 



194 ST. EUSTATHIU?, B. C. [JuLY 16. 

all of the Arian faetion : who returned with them to Antioeh. 
There thej assembled together, as in a Synod, in 331, and a 
debauched woman, whom the Arians had suborned, coming in, 
showed a child which she suckled at her breast, and declared 
that she had it by Eustathius, The saint protested his inno- 
cence, and alleged that the apostle forbids a priest to be con- 
demned unless convicted by two or more witnesses. This Wo- 
man, before her death, after a long illness, called in a great 
number of the clergy, and publicly declared to them tlie inno- 
cence of the holy bishop, and confessed that the Arians had 
given her money for this action, pretending that no perjuir)r was 
implied in her oath, upon the frivolous and foolish plea that 
she had the child by a brazier of the city called £u3tathius.(l) 
The Arians accused him also of Sabellianism, as Socrates and 
others testify; this being their general charge and slander 
against all who professed the orthodox faith. 

The Catholic bishops who wiere present with Eustathius, 
cried out loudly against the injustice of these proceedings, but 
could not be heard, and the Arians pronounced a sentence of 
deposition against the saint ; and Eusebius of Nicomedia and 
Theognis hastened to inform the Emperor Constantino of these 
proceedings. The Arian bishops invited Eusebius of Csesarea 
to exchange his see for the patriarchal chair of Antioeh ; but 
he alleged the prohibition of the canons ; and the Emperor 
Constantine commended his modesty, by a letter which Euse- 
bius has inserted in his life of that prince.(2) We should have 
been more edified with his humility had this circumstance been 
only rec<»*ded by others.(3) This happened, not in 340, as 
Baronius and Petavius imagine, but in 330 or 331, as is mani- 
fest not only from the testimony of Socrates, Sozomen, Theo- 

(1) Theodoret, 1. 1, c. 20, 21, S. HSer. 1. », in Rufin, &c. 

(2) Eu8. 1. 4, de Vit. Constant, c. 61. p. 518. 

(3) Sozom. 1, 2, c. 19, p. 469. 

omissions ; aor was the author much acquainted with the affairs of the 
Western Church. (SeeCeillier, t. 4, p. 258,) &c. Chitstophorson,. hishop 
of Chichester, elegaatiy translated this History into Jjatin, but changed 
the manner of dividing the chapters. Hie translation of the learned 
Henry Yelesius is most accurate. Eusebius was one of the most learned 
prelates of antiquity,, and a man of universal reading ; but he did not 
much study to polish his rfiscourses, which is the common fault of those 
who make learning and knowledge their chief business. 



JULT 16.] ST. EUSTATHIUS, B.C. 195 

doret, and Fhilostorgius, but also f^om several circumstances of 
tiie affair.(l) The people of Antioch raised a great sedition on. 
this occasion, but the Emperor Constantine) being prepossessed 
bj the slanders of the two bishops^ ordered St. Eustathiws to 
repair to Constantinople, and thence sent him into bamshpoent. 
The holy pastor assembled the people before bis departuue from 
Antioch, and exhorted them, to reinaia steadfast in the tru^ dioe^ 
trine, which exhortations w^e of great weight: in pre^r.viQ^ 
many in the Catholic faith* St Eustathius was bafii^bQd^ wijiih 
several priests and deacons,, firsts into Thn^^e, as SU Jietom 
and St. Clirysostom testify, and from, thence into^ lUyrieum, a^^ 
Theodoret addB. . Socrates and Sozomen eoafonnd bim \f itU a 
priest of Constantinople of the same name, wbea they tell us 
he was recalled, by Jovii^n^ and survived till the yew 370^ for 
St. Eustathius. died thirty year» before St, Meletius was. ad- 
vapced to the see of Antioah in 360j as Theodoret teeti^ea. 
Nor was he mentioned ii) the council of Sardio% or in any of 
the disputes that followed^^i and our best crities apid historians 
conclude him to have been 4ead in 337. Philippi, in M^qedon, 
which, in the diviidon of the empire into diocesaes, was com- 
prised in that of lUyrlcum, was the place of his death,(2) but 
his body wa& ij^terred at Trajanopolis, in Thrace, from which 
city CalandioB, one of his successors, caused it 1^ be trans- 
lated to Antioch, about the year 482, as Theodorus Lector in- 
forms us.* 

(1) See TiUemont, CeilUer, Cave, Hiat. Litter, p. 187, t. 1, and Solier, 
the BoUandisfc, Hist. Patr. Ant. c. 24, p. 36. 

(2) Theodoret, 1. 1, c. 20. Theodoras Lector, L % c. 1, p. 547. 
Theopiianes, p. 114. SeaTillem. note 4, p. 653. 

* St. Jerom (ep. 126, p. 38,) calls St- Eustathius a loud sounding trum- 
pet, land says he was the first who employed bis pen against the Arians. 
The same father admires the extent of his knowledge, saying that it was 
consHoimate both in sacred and profane learning, (ep. 84, p. 327.) His 
ju&t praises are set forth by St. Chrysostom in an entire panegyric ; and 
Sozofn«i assures uft (t, 1, c. 2,) that he was universally admired both for 
tiie sanetity of his Ufo, and the eloquence of his disoou^^sesv The elegant 
works which he composed against the Arians were £amou» in the fifth 
cc^ntufy, but have not reached us. But we have still his Treatise on the 
IVthonisea or Witch of Endor, published by Leo AUatius, with a curious 
Dissertation, and reprinted in the eighth tome of the Oitici Sacri. Tn 
it the author undertakes to prove ajUiuiiuit Origen that this witch neither 
did nor could call up the soul of Siimue), but only a spectre or deril 
representing Samuel, in <»der to deceive Saul. He clearlv teaches that 



19© ST. ELiER, M. [July 19. 

St. Eustathius bore his exile with patience and perfect suL- 
mission, and was under its disgraces and hardships greater and 
more glorious than whilst his zeal and other virtues shone with 
the brightest lustre on the patriarchal throne. We may please 
ourselves in those actions in which we seem to be something ; 
into which, however, self-love, under a thousand forms, easily 
insinuates itself. But the mas^ims of our Divine Redeemer 
teach us that no circumstances are so happy for the exercise of 
the most heroic virtue as humiliations and distresses when sent 
by Providence. These put our love to the test, apply the re- 
medy tb the very root of our spiritual disorders, employ the 
most perfect virtues of meekness, forgiveness, and patience, and 
call forth our resignation, humility, and reliance on Providence ; 
in these trials we learn most perfectly to die to our passions, to 
know ourselves, to feel our own nothingness and miseries, and 
with St. Paul to take pleasure in our infirmities. Here all 
virtue is more pure and perfect A Christian suffering with 
patience and joy, bears in spirit the nearest resemblance to his 
crucified Master, and enters deepest into his most perfect senti- 
ments of humility, meekness, and love : for Jesus on his cross 
is the model by which his disciples are bound to form them- 
selves, which they no where can do with greater advantage than 
when they are in a like state of desolation and sufiering. 

ST. ELIER OR HELIER HERMIT, M. 

In the isle of Jersey and on the coast of Normandy the name 
of this servant of God has been in singular veneration from the 
time of his happy death. He was converted to the faith by St. 
Marcon, a holy abbot in Armorica, and being inflamed with an 

before the coming of Christ the souls of the just rested in Abraham's 
bosom ; and that none could enter heaven before Christ had opened it ; 
but that Christians enjoy an advantage above the patriarchs and prophets, 
in being united with Christ immediately aiter their death if they have 
lived welL This treatise is well written, and justifies the commenda- 
tions which the ancients give to this great prelate and eloquent orator. 

Sozomen justly calls his writings admirable, as well for the purity of his 
style as for the sublimity of thought, the beauty of the expression, or 
the curious choice of the matter. Nothing more enhances his virtue, 
tlian the invincible constancy and patience with which he suffered the 
most reproachful accusation with which his enemies charged him, and the 
uv^ttst deposition and banishment which were inflicted on hhn. 



JCLY 17.] ST. ALEXIUS, C. 197 

ardent desire of Sf^rvinjr God in the practice of perfect virtue, 
retired into the isle of Jersey, and choosing jbr his abode a cave 
on the summit of a rock of difficult access, there led an ererai- 
itcdl life in rigorous fasting and assiduous prayer. In this 
lonely retreat he was murdered by robbers or infidel barbarians. 
The chief town in the island, which is situate seven leagues from 
Cotentin, bears his name. The -dean of the island is still invited 
to all diocesan synods of Coutances, the island having been 
formerly subject to the spiritual jurisdiction of that see. See 
tKe new Martyrology of Evreux; Piganiol, Descrip. de la 
France, t. 9, p. 557 ; the acts of St Helier, in the BoUandists, 
16 Julij, and of St. Marcou, 1 Maij ; also Trigan. Hist, de Nor- 
mandie, 1. 3, p. 91, 1. 4, p. 124; the Breviaries of Coutancee 
and Rennes, and that of the Cistercian abbey of Beaubec, in 
the diocess of Rouen, which is possessed of his relics. 



JULY XVIL 

ST. ALEXIUS, CONFESSOR. 

From Joseph the Younger, in a poem of the ninth age, divided into Odes, 
an anonymous writer of his Life in the tenth century, noted by the 
BoUandists, a homily of St. Adalbert, bishop of Prague, and martyr, 
of the same age, and from other monuments, free from later inter- 
polations ; on all which see Pinius the BoUandist, t. 4, Julij, p. 239, 
who confutes at large the groundless and inconsistent surmises of Bail-' 
let. Above all, see Nerinio, abbot of the Hieronymites at Rome, who 
has fully vindicated the memory of St. Alexius in his Dissertation De 
Templo et Coenobio, SS. Bonifacii et Alexii, in 4to. Romse, 1752. On 
his Chaldaic Acts, see Jos. Assemani, ad 17 Martii, in Calend. Univ. 
t. 6, pp. 187, 189; and Bibl. Orient, t. 1, p. 401. 

IN THE FIFTH CENTURY. 

St. Alexius or Alexis is a perfect model of the most generous 
contempt of the world. He was the only son of a rich senator 
of Borne, bom and educated in that capital, in the fifth century^ 
From the charitable example of his pious parents he learned, 
from his tender years, that the riches which are given away to 
the poor, remain with us for ever ; and that alms-deeds are 
a treasure transferred to heaven, with the interest of an im- 
mense reward. And whilst yet a child, not content to give all 



198 8T. ALEXIUS, C. f JuLY 17 

he could, he left nothing unattempted to compass or solicit the 
relief of all whom he saw in distress. But the manner in which 
he dealt about his liberal alms was still a greater ^vooi of the 
noble sentiments of yirtue with which his soul wasr fired ; for 
by this he showed that he thought himself most obliged to those 
who received his charity, and regarded them as his greatest 
benefactors. The more he enlarged his views of eternity, and 
raised his thoughts and desires to the bright scene of immortal 
bliss, the more did he daily despise all earthly toys ; for, when 
once the soul^is thus upon the wing, and soars upwards, how 
does the glory of this world lessen in her eye I and how does 
she contemn the empty pageantry of all that worldiings. call 
great! 

Fearing lest the fascination, or at least the distraction of tem- 
poral honours might at length divide oi; draw bis heart too 
much from those only noble and great objects, he entertained 
thoughts of renouncing the advantages of his birth, and retiring 
from the noore dangerous part of the world. Having, in com- 
pliance with the will of his parents, married a rich and virtuous 
lady, he on the very day of the nuptials, making use of the 
liberty which the laws of God and his church give a person 
before the marriage be consummated^ of preferring a more per- 
fect state, secretly withdrew, in opier to break all the ties which 
held him ia the world. In disguise he traivelled inta a distant 
country, embraced extreme poverty, and resided in a hut ad- 
joining to a church dedicated to the Mother of God. Being, 
after some time there, discovered to be a stranger of distinction, 
he returned home, and being received as a poor pilgrim, lived 
some time unknown in his father^s house, bearing the con- 
tumely and ill treatment of the servants with invincible patience 
and silence. A little before he died, he by a letter discovered 
himself to his parents. He flourished in the reign of the em- 
peror Honorius, Innocent the First being bishop of Rome ; and 
is honoured in the calendars of the Latins, Greeks, Syrians, 
Maronites, and Armenians. His interment was celebrated with 
the greatest pomp by the whole city of Rome^ on the Aventin 
hill. His body was found there in 1216^ in the ancient church 
of St. Boniface, whilst Honorius III. sat in St. Peter^s chair, 
and at this day is the most precious treasure of a sumptuous 



July 17.] st. spbratfs, &c. mm. 199 

church on the same spot, which bears his name jointly with 
that of St. Boniface, gives title to a cardinal, and is in the 
hands of the Hieronymites, 

The extraordinary paths in which the Holy Ghost is pleased 
sometimes to conduot certain priyileged souls are rather to; be 
admired than imitated. If it cost them so much to seek humi- 
liations, how diligently ought we to make a g<!>od use of those 
at least which providence, sends us ! It is only by humbling 
oitrselvefi on all occasions that we can walk in the path of true 
humility, and root out of our h^trts all secret pride^ The 
poison of this vice infects all states and conditions : it often 
lurks undiscovered in the foldings of the heart even after a man 
has got the mastery x)ver all his other passions. Pride always 
remains even for the most perfect principally to fight against ; 
and unless we watch continually against it, nothing will remain 
sound or untainted in our lives ; this vice will creep even into 
our best actions, infect the whole cii'cle of our lives, and become 
a main spring of all the nrations of our heart ; and what is the 
height of our misfortune, the deeper its wounds are, the more is 
the soul stupified by its venom, and the less capable is she of 
feeling her most ginevous disease and spiritual death. St. John 
Climscxis writes,(l) that when a young novice was rebuked for 
his pride, he said : '' Pardon me, father, I am not proud." To 
whom the experienced director replied : " And how could you 
give me a surer proof of your pride than by not seeing it your- 
self?" 

SS. SPERATUS AND HIS COMPANIONS 

COMMONLT CALLED THE SCILLITAN MARTTR8. 

When the emperor Severus returned victorious from having 
vanquished the kings who had taken part with Nigiu* against 
hiniy he published his cruel edicts against the Christians in the 
year of Christ 202, the tenth of his reign. But the general 
laws of the empire against foreign religions, and the former 
edicta of several emperors against the Christians, were a suffi- 
cient warrant to many governors to draw the aword against 
(liem before that time ; and we find that the persecution wa9 

0)Gr. 22, p. 54a 



*iOO ST. SFERATUS, &C. MM. [JuLT 17i 

Very hot in Afiica two years before, under the proconsul Satur* 
hinus, in the eighth year of Severus and two hundredth of Christ* 
The first who suffered at Carthage were twelve persons, com- 
tnonly called the Scillitan Martyrs, probably because they were 
of Scillita, a town of the proconsular Africa. They were 
brought prisoners to Carthage, and on the 16th of July wrre 
presented to the proconsul whilst he was seated on his tribunal* 
The six principal among them were Speratus, Narzalis, and 
Cittinus ; and three women, Donata, Secunda, and Vestina* 
The proconsul offered them the emperor's pardon if they would 
worship the gods bf the Romans. Speratus answered in the 
name of all : " We have never committed any crime, we have 
injured no one ; so far from it, we have always thanked God 
for the evil treatment we have received ; wherefore we declare 
to you that we worship no other God but the true one, who is 
the lord and master of all things ; we pray for those who perse- 
cute us unjustly, according to the law we have received." The 
proconsul urged them to swear by the emperor's genius. Spe- 
ratus said, " I know not the genius of the emperor of this 
world ; but I serve the God of heaven, whom no mortal man 
hath ever seen or can see. I never committed any crime punish- 
able by the laws of the state. I pay the public duties for what- 
ever I buy, acknowledging the emperor for my temporal lord ; 
but I adore none but my God, who is the King of kings, and 
sovereign Lord over all the nations of the world. I have been 
guilty of no crime, and therefore cannot have incurred punish- 
ment." Hereupon the proconsul said : " Let them be carried 
to prison, and put in wooden stocks till to-morrow." 

On the day following, the proconsul being seated on his tri- 
bunal, ordered them all to be brought before him, and said to 
the women, " Honour our prince, and offer sacrifice to the 
gods." Donata replied : " We give to Caesar the honour that is 
due to CaBsar ; but we adore and offer sacrifice to God alone." 
Vestina said: " I also am a Christian." Secunda said; "I also 
believe in my God, and will continue faithful to him. As for 
your gods we will neither serve nor adore them." The proconsul 
then ordered them into custody, and having called up the 
men, he saicL to Speratus : " Art thou still resolved to remain a 
Christian ?" Speratus replied : " Yes I am, be it known to all. 



July 17.] ^t, speratus, &c. xMM. 201 

I am a Christian.'* All that had been apprehended with him 
cried out: "We also are Christians." The proconsul said^ 
" Will you not then so much as deliberate upon the matter, or 
have any favour shown you ?" Speratus replied : " Do what 
you please ; we die with joy for the sake of Jesus Christ.** 
The proconsul asked : •* What books are those which you read 
and have in reverence r" Speratus answered : " The four 
gospels of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; the epistles of 
the apostle St Paul, and the rest of the Scriptures revealed by 
God."* The proconsul said : ** I give you three days to repent 
in." Upon which Speratus made answer : " We will never 
depart from the faith of our Saviour Jesus Christy therefor© 
take what course you think fit." The proconsul seeing their 
constancy and resolution, pronounced sentence against Ihem in 
these terms : " Speratus, Narzalis, Cittinus, Veturius, Felix, 
Acyllinus, Laetantius, Januaria, Generosa, Yestina, Donata, 
and Secunda, having acknowledged themselves Christians, and 
having refused to pay due honour and respect to the emperor, 
I condemn them to be beheaded.* This sentence being read, 
Speratus, and all those who were with him, said : " We give 
God thanks for vouchsafing to receive us this day as martyrs 
in heaven, for confessing his name." Having said this, they 
were led to the place of execution, where they all fell on their 
knees, and once more gave thanks to Jesus Christ. Whilst 
they continued in prayer, their heads were struck ofil The 
faithful who transcribed their acts out of the public registers, 
add :t " The martyrs of Christ finished their conflict in the 
month of July, and they intercede for us to our Lord Jesus 
Christ, to whom be given honour and glory with the Father 
and the Holy Ghost through all ages." 

TertuUian,:]: sopn after their martyrdom, addressed his ex- 



* ** Qui rant libriquos adoratis, legentes? Speratus, respondit: Qua 
tuor evangelia Domini nostri Jesu Christi, et epistolas S. Fauli apostoli, 
et omnem divinitiis inspiratam scripturam.'* Actaapud Buinart, p. 78, 
et Baron, ad an. 202. 

f ** Consummpti suntChristi martyres mense Julio, et intercedunt pro 
nobis ad Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum, cui honor et gloria cum 
Patre et Spiritu Sancto in ssecula sseculoruro." Acta apud Baronium, ad 
an. 202. 

J Quintus Septimius Florens TertulHanus is commonly known by the 



202 ST. SPEEATUS, &C., MM. [JuLY 17 

fjellent apologetic discourse for the Christ^ian religion to the 
govermwfl of the provinces, but without success. He testi- 
fies(l) that Satuminus, who first drew the sword agdinst the 
Christians in Africa, soon after lost his eyes. As to the em- 

(1) Tert. 1, ad Scapul. c. 3. 



Ia.«t name. His father was a centurion in the proconsular troops of Africa, 
and he was born at Cartilage about the year 160. He confesses that be. 
fore his conversion to the Christian faith he, in his merry fits, pointed his 
keenest satire against it, (Apol. c. 18,) liad been an adulterer (DeResur. 
c. 59,) had taken a cruel pleasure in the bloody entertainments of the 
amphitheatre, (De Spectac. c. 19,) attained to a distinguishing eminency 
in rice, (Dc Poenit. c. 4, **Ego pracstantiam in deiictis meam agnoeco,") 
and was an accomplished sinner in all respects, (ib. c. 12, "Peccator 
omnium notarum cum sim,*') yet haring his head marvellously well 
turned for science, he applied himself from his cradle to the study of 
every branch of good literature, poetry, philosophy, geometry, physic, 
and oratory ; he dived into the principles of each sect, and both into the 
fabulous, and into the real or historical part of mythology. His compre- 
heittive genius led him through the whole circle of profkne sciences ; above 
the rest, as EusebiustdHs us, he was profoundly versed In the Roman laws. 
He had a surprising vivadty and keenness of wit, and an uncommon 
stock of natund fire which rendered him exceeding hot and impatient, as 
himself complains. (I. de Patient, in init. ) Efis otlier passions he re- 
stramed after his conversion to Christianity ; but this vehemence of tem- 
per he seems never to have sufficiently checked. The motives which en- 
gaged him to embrace the gospel seem those upon which he most tri- 
umphantly insists in his works ; as the antiquity of the Mosaic writings, 
the mighty works and wisdom of the divine law-giver, the continued 
chain of prophecy and wonders conducting the attentive inquirer to 
Christ, the evidence of the miracles of Christ and his apostles, the ex- 
cellency of the law of the gospel, and its amazing influence upon the 
lives of men ; the power which every Christian then exercised over evil 
spirits, and the testimony of the very devils themselves whom the infi- 
dels worshipped for gods, and who turn, d preachers of Christ, howling, 
and confessing themselves devils in the presence of their own votaries, 
(Apol. c. 19, 20, 23, &c. &c.) also the constancy and patience of the 
martyrs (1. ad Scapul. c. ult.) &c. 

Bdng by his lively and comprehensive genius excellently formed for 
controversy, he immediately set himself to write in defence of religiouj 
Which was then attacked by the Heatliens and Jews nn one side, and on 
the other corrupted by heretics. He successfully employed Ms pen against 
all these enemies to truth, and first against the Pagans. The persecution 
which began to rage gave occasion to his Apologetic, which is not only 
his masterpiece, but indisputably one of the best among all the works of 
Christian antiquity. This piece was notiuldresaed to the Eoman senate, 
as Baronius and several others thought, but to the proconsul and other 
magistrates of Africa, and perhaps to all the governors of provinces and 
magristrates of the empire, among whom he might also comprise the Roman 
senators ; for the title of Presidents only, agreed to these provincial go- 
vernors, and he names the proconsul, (ch. 45.) speaks of Rome as at a 
distance; (c. 9, 21, 24, 35, 45 ) says they practised at, home (at Carthage) 



July 17.J st. speratus, &c., mm. 2C3 

peror Sevetus, after carrying on the persecution ten years, 
whilst he was making war in Britain, being on his march with 
his army, his eldest son Bassianus, surnamed Antoninus Cara- 
calla, who marched after him, Btopped his horse, and drew his 

the bloody teligious rites of the Scythians ; (c. 9,) and by those words, 
" in ipso fere rercioe eivitotis prsBsidentes,*' he seems to meac the Byrsa 
of Carthage; oertainly not Rome, which he always calls Urbs, not 

Tn the irst part of this work he clears Christians from the calumnies 
of incest and murder tb?K>wn upon them, demonstrates the injustice 
of punishing them merely for « name, and exposes the absurdity of Tra- 
jan's order commanding them to be punished if impeached, yet not to be 
sought afber. He mentions that Tiberius, iind, after his miraculous 

vict(Jry, liarcus Aurelius, were favourable to the Chriatian religion 

He then proceeds to confute idolatry ; asks, if Bacchus was made a god 
for planting vines, .why did not Lucullus attain to the same honour, be^ 
cause he first brought cherry-trees from Pontus to Rome ? Why Aristi- 
des the Just, Sodrates, Croesus, Demosthenes, and so many others who 
had been most eminent, were not admitted to share divine honours with 
Jupiter, Venus, &c. ? He explains the chief articles of our faith, and 
speaking of the origin and false worship of the demons he inserts the 
most daring challenge, which St. Cyprian, (ep. ad Bemetrianum,) Lac 
tantius, (De Just. 1. 5, c. 21,) and other primitive fathers repeat with 
the same assurance — ** Let a demoniac be brought into court," says Ter- 
* tullian, ** and the evil spirit that possesses him be commanded by any 
Christian to declare what he is, he shall confess himself as truly to be a 
devil as he did ftdsely before declare himself a god. In like manner let 
them bring any of those who are thought to be inspired by some god, as 
JBsculapius, &c. If all these do not declare themselves in court to be 
devils, not daring to lie to a Christian, do you instantly put that rash 
Christian to death.'* 

The apologist mentions the submission of Christians to the emperors, 
their love of their enemies, and their mutual charity, horror of all vice, 
and constancy in suffering death and all manner of torments for the sake 
of virtue. The heathens called them in derision Sarmentitians and Se- 
mazians, because they were fastened to trunks of trees, and stuck about 
with faggots to be set on fire. But Tertullian answers them: <*ThuB 
dressed about with fire, we are in our most illustrious apparel. These are 
our triumphal robes embroidered with palm branches in token of victory, 
(such the Roman generals wore in their solemn triumphs,) and mounted 
upon the pile we look upon ourselves as in our triumphal chariot. Wlio 
ever looked well into our religion but he came over to it ? and who ever 
came over to it but was ready to suffer for it ? We thank you for con- 
demning us, because there is such a blessed disoord between the divine 
and human judgment, that when you condemn us upon earth, God ab. 
solveth us in heaven." 

Tertullian wrote about the same time his two books Against the Gen. 
tiles, in the first confuting their slanders, in the second attaking their 
false gods. An accidental disputation of a Christian with a Jewish pro- 
selyte engaged him to show the triumph of the faith over that obstinate 
race, who seemed deaf to all arguments. His book Against the Jews is 
just, solid, and well supported, a model of theological controversy, wliieh 



204 ST. SPERATUS, &C., MM. [JULY l?*"" 

sword to stab him, but was prevented by others. Sevenis only 
reproached him for it, but died soon after at York, of grief for 
his son's treachery, rather than of the gout, on the 4th of Fe- 
bruary, in the year 211, having lived sixty-five years, and reigned 

wants but a little dearnessof diction to be a very finished piece. Hermoge- 
nes, a Stoic philosopher and a Christian, broached a new heresy in Africa, 
teaching matter to be eternal. TertulUan shows it to have been created 
by God with the world, and unravels the sophistry of that heresiarch 
in his book Against Hermogenes. That Against the Yalentinians is rather 
a satire and raillery, than a serious confutation of the extravagant senti* 
roents of those heretics. EQs excellent book Of Prescription against 
Heretics was certainly written before his fall ; for in it he lays great 
stress on his communion with all the apostolic churches, especially 
that of Rome, and confutes by general principles all heresies that can 
arise. 

His design in this little treatise is to show, that the appeal to scripture 
is very unjust in heretics, who have no claim or title to the scriptures. 
These were carefully committed in trust by the apostles to their successors, 
and he proves, that to whom the scriptures were intrusted, to them also 
was committed the interpretation of scripture. He promises that here- 
sies are the very pest and destruction of faith, but no just cause of scan- 
dal or wonder, any more than fevers which consume the human body ; 
for they were predicted by Christ, and the necessary consequence of 
criminal passions. He says, as if it had been to anticipate or remove the 
offence which he afterwards gave by his fall : ** What if a bishop, a dea- 
con, a widow, a virgin, a teacher, or even a martyr, shall fkll from the 
faith; — Do we judge of the faith by the persons, or of persons by 
their faith ? No man is wise who holds not the fkith." (c. 3.) He says : 
** We have no need of a nice inquiry after we have found Christ, or of 
any curious search after we have learned the gospel. K we believe, we 
desire nothing farther than to be believers." (c. 7.) He adds, some 
heretics inculcate as a good- reason for eternal scruple and searching, that 
it is written : Seek and ye shall find. But he takes notice those words 
only belonged to those Jews who had not yet found Christ, and cannot 
mean, that we must for ever seek on. But if we are to seek, it must not 
be from heretics who are estranged from the truth, who have no power 
to instruct, no inclination but to destroy, and whose very light is dark. 
uess. Christ laid down a rule of faith, about which there can be no 
cavils, no disputes but what are raised by heretics ; and an obstinate 
opposition to this rule is what constitutes a heretic. 

He inveighs against too curious searches in faith, as the source of here* 
sies. Then coming dose to the point, he will not have heretics admitted 
to dispute about the scriptures, to which they have no claim ; and in 
such a scriptural disputation, the victory is precarious and very liable to 
uncertainty. All then is to be resolved into what the apostles have 
taught ; which apostolical tradition is the demonstration of the truth, 
and the confutation of all error and heretical innovation. Our perfect 
agreement, and general consent and harmony with the apostolic churches 
which live in the unity of the same faith, is the most convincing proof of 
the truth, against which no just objection can possibly be formed, (c. 21, 
22.) He urges that Marcion, Apelles, Yalentinus, and Hermogenes were 
of too modem a date, and proved by their separation and pretended claim 



July 17.] st. spebatus, &c., mm. 205 

seventeen years and eight months. His two sons, Antoninus 
Caracalla and Greta, succeeded him ; but the elder caused the 
latter to be stabbed in Jiis mother's bosom, who was sprinkled 
with his blood. See the acts of the Scillitan martyrs, copied 

of what was ancient, that the church was before them ; they ought there* 
fore to say J that Christ came do¥ni again from heayen and taught again 
upon earth, before they can commence apostles. "But," says he, **if 
any of these heretics have the confidence to put in their claim to apoBtoKc 
antiquity, let them show us the original of their churches, the order and 
succession of their bishops, so as to ascend up to an apostle," &c. He is 
for having the heretics prove their mission by miracles, like the apostles, 
(c. 35.) He writes : *• To these men the church might thus fitly address 
herself-— Who are ye ? When, and from whence came ye ? What do ye 
in my pastures, who are none of mine ? By what authority do you, 
Marcion, break in upon my inclosures ? Whence, O Apelles, is your 
power to remove my land-marks ? This field is mine of right, why then 
do you at your pleasure sow and feed therein ? It i^ my possession ; I 
held it in times past ; I first had it in my hands ; my title to it is firm 
and indisputable, and derived from those persons whose it was, and to 
whom it properly belonged ; I am the heir of the apostles ; ds they pro- 
vided in their testament, as they committed and delivered to my trust, as 
they charged and ordered me, so I hold," (c. 37.) He takes notice that 
in the Pagan superstitions the devil had imitated many ceremonies both 
of the Jewish and Christian religion ; and that heretics in like manner 
were bad copies of the true church, (c. 40.) He appeals to the manners 
and conversation f the heretics which are vain, earthly, without weight, 
without discipline, in every respect suitable to the fiuth they profess, 
(c. 41, 43.) ** I am very much mistaken," says he, •* if they are go- 
verned by any rules, even of their own making, since every one models 
and adopts the doctrine he has received according to his fancy, as the 
first founder framed them to his, and to serve his ovm turn, liie pro- 
gress of every heresy was formed upon the footsteps of its first intro- 
ducers ; and the same liberty that was assumed by Valentinus and Mar- 
cion, was generally made use of by their followers. If you search into 
all sorts of heresies, you will find that they differ in many things from 
the first authors of their own sect. They have few of them any diurch ; 
but without mother, without see, without the faith, they wander up and 
down like exiled men, entirely devoid of house and home." (c. 42.) 

Among his other works, the most useful is the book On Penance, the 
best polished of all his writings ; in the first part he treats of repentance 
at baptism ; in the second, on that for sins committed after baptism. He 
teaches here that the chuich hath power to remit even fornication, which 
he denied when a Montanist. He insists much on the laborious exer- 
cises of this penance after baptism. 

A book On Prayer, explaining in the first part the Lord's Prayer; in 
the second, severid ceremonies ofb^ used at prayer. An exhortation to 
Patience, in which the motives are displayed with great eloquence. An 
exhortation to Martyrdom, than yrhich nothing can be more pathetic. 

He wrote a book On Baptism, proving in the first part, its obligation 
and necessity ; in the second, treating on several points of discipline re- 
lating to that sacrament. 

As to his other works, in his first book to his Wife, written probably 

VOJL. VIL - . 



206 ST. 8PEKATU8, &e^ HM. [JcLT 17* 

from the court registers by three different Christians, who 
added short notes, published by Baronius, ad. an. 202, bj 
Huinart^ p. *I5, and by Mabillon, t. 3, Analect. p. 153, and 
abridged by Tillemont, t. 3, Ceillier, t. 2, p. 211 ; Cuper the 
Bollandist, t. 4, Julij. p. 204. 



before he was priest, (see CeiUier, pp. 375, 391,) he exhorts her not to 
marry again, if she should surviTe him ; and mentions several in the 
church Uring in perpetual oontinency. In the second, he allows seccmd 
marriages lawfixl ; but if the woman be determined to engage a second 
time in the married -state, insists that it is unlawful to marry an iiKfldel. 
He alleges the impossibility of rising to prayer at ni^t, giving suitable 
alms, visiting the martyrs, &c. with a pagan husband : ** Can you con- 
ceal yourself from him," says he, *' when you make the sign of the cross 
upon your bed or your body ?-^Will he not know what you receive in 
secret, before you take any food?" that is, the eucharist, (1. 2, c. 5.) 
He concludes with to amiable description of a Christian holy marriage ; 
•* The church," saith he, "approves the contract, the oWation ratifies 
it, the blessing is the seal of it, and the angels carry it to the heavenlj- 
Father who confirms it. Two bear together the same yoke, and are but 
one flesh, and one mind : they pray together, fast tog<^ther, mutmdly 
exhort each other, go together to the church, and to the table of the 
Lord. They conceal nothing from each other, visit the sick, collect alms 
without restraint, assist at the ofilces of the church without interruptioQ. 
sing psalms and hymns together, and encourage each other to praise 
God." 

In his treatise On the Shows, he represents them as occasions of idola. 
try, impurity, vanity, and other vices, and mentions a woman who, going 
to the theatre, returned back possessed with a devil : when the exorcist 
reproached the evil spirit for daring to attack one of the faithful, it boldly 
answered : ** I found her in my own house." In his book On Idolatry, 
he determines many cases of conscience, relating to idolatry, as, that it 
is not lawful to make idols, &c. ; but he says, a Christian servant may 
attend his master to a temple ; any friend may assist at an idolater's 
marriage, &c. In two books On the Ornaments or Dress of Women, he 
zeiJou^y recommends modesty in attire, and condemns their use of paint. 
In that On veiling Virgins, he imdertakes to prove that young women 
ought to cover their faces at church, contrary to the custom of his coun. 
try, where only married women are veiled. In that On the Testimony 
of the Soul, he proves that there is only one God from the natural testi- 
mony of every one*s soul. In his Scorpiace, written against the poison 
of the Scorpions, that is. Gnostics, especially a branch of those heretics 
named Cainites, he proves the necessity of martyrdom, which &ey de- 
nied. In his Exhortation to Chastity, he dissuades a certain widow from 
a second marriage, which he allows to be lawful, though hardly so ; and 
the harshness of Ms expressions show that he tiien leaned towards Mon- 
tanism. 

TertuUian was a priest, and continued in the church till the middle of 
his life, that is, to for^ or upwards, when he miserably fell. Montanus, 
an eunuch in Phiygia, set up fbr a prophet, and was wonderfully agitated 
by an evil spirit, and pretended to raptures, in which he lost his senses, 
and spoke incchcreatly net like St. Quadratus and other tru9 prophets 



i/UL7 17.] ST. MASCELLINA, V. 207 

ST. MARCELLINA, V. 

She was eldest sister to SS. Ambrose and Satjsus, and after 
the death of ker father, who was prefect of the Gauls, removed 

fie was joined by Prisca, or PriBciUa, and HazimiUa, two women of 
quality, and rich, but of mo8t debauched UTe&. These had the like pre- 
tended raptures, and many were deceived by^them. Montanus, about 
<he year 171 » pretended that he had received tlie Holy Ghost to complete 
« the law of the, gospel, and was called by his followers the Paraclete. 
Affectiog a severity of doctrine, to which his manners did not correspond, 
he condemned second marriages, and flight in persecution, and^idered 
extraordinary fasts. The Montanists said that, boside the fast of Lent 
observed by the Catholics, there were other fasts imposed by the Diyiue 
Spirit. They kept three Lents in the year, each of two weeks, and upon 
dry meats, as necessary injunctions of the Spirit by the new revelations 
made to Montanus, which they preferred to the writings of the apostles ; 
jmd they said these laws were to be observed for ever. (See Tert. de Je. 
jun. c 15; also St. Jerom, ep. M, ad Marcellam, et in Aggae, c. I,) 
which is the reason why the Montanists, even in the time of Sozomen, 
kept their Antepaschal fast confined to two weeks, which the Catholics 
j at that time certainly observed of forty days. For, as Bishop Hooper 

I (of Lent, p. 65,) remarks, those great fasters would hardly have been 

I left behind, had they not been restrained by the pretended institution of 

the Spirit, to which they punctually kept ; and this circumstance ren- 
l dered these fasts superstitious. Pepuzium, a town in Phrygia, was the 

metropolis of these heretics, who called it Jerusalem. The bishops of 
Asia having examined their prophecies and errors, condemned them. It 
is said, that Hontanus and MaTimilla goiAg mad hanged themselves. See 
Eusebius. 

TertuUian's harsh severe disposition fell in with this rigidness. His 
vehement temper ^asfor no medium in anything; and falling first by 
pride, he resented some afironts which he imagined he had received from 
the clergy of Kome^ as St. Jerom testifies ; and in this passion deserted 
the Church, forgetting the maxims by which he had confuted all heresies. 
Solomon's fall did not prejudice his former inspired writings. Kor does 
the misfprtune of Tertulhan destroy at least the justness of the reasoning 
in what he had written in del^nce of the truth, any more than if a man 
lost his senses, this unluckly accident could annul what he had formerly 
done for the advancement of learning. 

TertuUian is the most ancient of all ecclesiastical writers among the 
Latins. St. Vincent of Lerins, who is far from shading the blemishes of 
this great man, says, ** He was among the Latins what Origen was among 
the Greeks, that is, the first man of his age. Every word seems a sen. 
tence, and almost every sentence a new victory. Yet with idl these ad- 
vantagesy he did not continue in the ancient and universal faith. His 
error, as the blessed confessor Hilary observes, has taken away that au- 
thority from his writings which they would have otherwise deserved." 
St. Jerom in his book against Helvidius, when his authority was objected, 
coolly answered, ** That he is not of the Church," ^* Ecclesisd hominem 
son esse." Yet he sometimes speaks advantageously of his learning. 
Lactantins calls his style uncouth, rugged, and dark, but admires his 
depth of sense ; and he who breaks the ehcll will not repent his pains for 



208 8T. MABCELLINA, V. [JuLY 17- 

to Rome with her pious mother and brothers. She was dis- 
creet beyond her years, and from her cradle sought with her 
whole heart the only thing for which she was created and sent 
into the world. Being charged at Rome with the education of 

the kernel. Balsac ingenioasly compares his eloqiience to ebony which 
j» bright and pleasing in its black light. The great master of elo<^uence» 
St. Cyprian, found such hidden stores under Ms dark language, that h6 
is reported never to have passed a day without reading him ; and when h» 
called for his book, he used to say, ** Gire me my master.'* 

We find this onoe great man, who expressed in his Apologetic (cap. 39.) 
the mostjust and fearful apprehension of excommunication, which he there 
called, The anticipation of the future judgment, afterwards proud, arro- 
gant, and at open defiance with the censures of the Church. And this 
great genius seems even to lose common sense when he writes in farour 
of his errors and enthusiasm, as when, upon the authority of the dreams 
of Prificilla and Maximilla, he seriously dilutes on the shape and colour 
of a human soul, &c. He lived to a very advanced age, and leaving the 
Montanists, became the author of a new sect called from him Tertullianista, 
who had a church at Carthage till St« Austin's time, when they were all 
reconciled to the Catholic fiiith. Tertulllan died towards the year 245. 

The works which he wrote^ after his fall are, a book On the Soul, pre- 
tendiug it to have a human figure, &c. Another On the Flesh of Christ, 
proving that he took upon him human flesh in reality, not in appearance 
only. One On the Besurrection of the Flesh, proving that great mystery, 
rive books Against Marcion, who maintained that there were two prin. 
ciples or gods, the one good the other evil ; that the latter was worshipped 
by the Jews, and was author of their law ; but that the good god sent 
Christ to destroy his works. Against this heresiarch, Tertullian proves 
the unity of God, and the sanctity of the Old Law and Testament. In 
his book Agiunst Fraxeas he proves excellently the Trinity of Persons, 
and uses the very word Trinity; (c. 2.) but he impiously condemns 
Fraxeas, because coming from the East to Rome he had informed Pope 
Victor of the errors and hypocrisy of Montanus ; on which account he 
says, he had banished the Paraclete (Montanus) and crucified the Father. 
'* Paradetum fagavit, Patrem crucifixit," (c. 1.) For Fraxeas, pufEed up 
with the title of confessor, broached the heresy of the Patripassians, con- 
founding the three Persons, and pretendmg that the Father in the Son 
hecame man, and was crucified for us. His apology for the Philosophers* 
Cloak, which he continued to wear rather than the Toga, for its con- 
veniency, and as an emblem of a severer life, seems only written to display 
his wit. His apology to Scapula, proconsul of Africa in 211, is an ex- 
hortation to put a stop to the persecution, alle^g that ** a Christian is 
no man's enemy, much leas the emperor's." In his book On Monogamy 
he maintauis against the iPsychici (so he calls the CSatholics) that second 
marriages are unlawful, which was one point of his heresy. One of his 
arguments is, the duty of a widow always to pray for the soul of her 
deceased husband, (c. 10.) 

He wrote his book On Fasts, to defend the extraordinary fasts com. 
manded by the Montanists ; but shows that certain obligatoiy fasts were 
observed by the Catholics, as that before Easter, since called Xicnt, in 
which they fasted eveiy day till vespers or evening-service : that those of 
\7ednesday and Friday till three o'clock, called stations, were devotiooai 



Jolt 17.J st. maecellina, v. 209 

her two brothers, she inspired them, bj words and example, 
with an ardent thirst ot virtue. She taught them that noble- 
ness of blood cannot enhance merits nor make men more 
illustrious unless they despise it; and that learning is an 
unpardonable crime and foUj, if bj it a man should desire to 
know every thing that is in heaven and earth but himself ; for 
with the true knowledge of oui:selves are all our studies to 
begin and end, if we desire to render them in any degree 
advantageous to ourselves. She kindled in their tender breasts 
a vehement desire, not of the show of virtue, but to become 
truly virtuous. In her whole conduct aU her view was only 
the glory of God. The better to pursue this great end she 
resolved to renounce the world ; and on Christmas-day, in 352, 
she put on the religious habit, and received the veil from the 



Some added to these Xerophagia or the use only of dried meats, abstain- 
ing from all vinous and juicy fruits; and some confined themselyes to 
bread and water. The Montanists kept three Lents a year, and other 
fasts always till night, and with the Xerophagia. 

TertuUian wrote also his book On Chastity, against the CathoHcs 
because they gave absolution to penitents who had been guilty of adultery 
or fornication. For the Montanists denied that the Church could pardon 
sins of impurity, murder or idolatry. In this book he mentions twice, 
that, on the sacred chalices was painted the image of the good shepherd 
bringing home the lost sheep on his shoulders. Scoffing at a decree made 
by the bishop of Borne at that time, he writes: ''I am informed that 
they hare made a decree, and even a peremptory one ; the diief priest, 
that is, the bishop of bishops, saith : I remit the sins of adultery and for. 
nication to those who have done penance.'* (c. 1.) He calls him apostolic 
bishop, c. 19. and blessed pope, c. 13. ib. His book On the Crown was 
written in 235, the first year of Maximinus, to defend the action of a 
Christian soldier who refused to put on his head a garland, like the rest, 
when he went to receive a donative. TertuUian says these garlands were 
Teputed sacred to some false god or other. He alleges that by tradition 
alone we practise many things, as the^ceremonies used at baptism, yearly 
ohlations (or sacrifices) for the dead, and for the festivals of martyrs, 
standing at prayer on the Lord's day, and frpm Easter to Whitsuntide, 
and the sign of the cross ** which we make," says he, "upon our fore- 
heads at every action, and in all our motions at coming in or going out 
of doors, in dressing or bathing ourselves ; when we are at table or in 
hed; when we sit down or light a lamp, or whatever else' we do." (De 
Corona, c. 3 and 4.) His book On Flight, was written about the same time 
to pretend to prove against the Catholics that it is a crime to fly in time 
of persecution. 

The most correct edition of TertuUian's works is that of Bigaltius, 
even that of Famelius being ill pointed, and abounding with faults; 
though Bigaltius's notes on this and some other fathers want much 
amendment. 



210 8T. KKWOBIUS, B. C. [JCHLT 17 

hands of Pope Liberius, in 8t. Peter^s clnircli, in presence of 
an incredible multiiade of people. ^, The pope, in a short dis- 
coarse on that occasion, e^lxorted her fl^nently to love only 
our Lord Jesns Christy the chaste spouse of her sonl, to lire in 
continual abstinence jnortificatioD, silence, and prayer, and 
always to behave herself in the church with the utmost respect 
and awe. He mentioned to her the page of Alexander tbo 
Great, who, for fear of disturbii^ the solemnity of a heathenish 
sacrifice by shaking off his hand a piece of melted wax that had 
fallen upon it, let it bum him to the bone. 

Marcellina in her practice went beyond the most perfect 
lessons. She fasted every day till evening ; and sometimes 
passed whole days without eating* She never touched any 
fare but what was of the coarsest kinds, and drank only water. 
She never kid herself down to rest till quite overcome with 
sleep. The greater part both of the day and night she 
devoted to prayer, pious reading, and tears of divine love and 
compunction. St. Ambrose advised her in the decline of her 
life to moderate her austerities, but always to redouble her 
fervour in tears and holy prayer, especially in reciting often 
the psalms, the Lord's prayer, and likewise the creed, which he 
calls the seal of a Christian, and the guard of our hearts. She 
continued at Bome after the death of her mother, living not in 
a nunnery but in a private house with one fervent virgin, the 
faithful companion of all her holy exercises. St Ambrose died 
in 397. She survived him, though it is uncertain how long. 
Her name is mentioned in the Boman and other Martyrologies 
on the 17th of July. See St. Ambrose, 1. 3, de Virgin, c. 1, 
2, 3, 4, t. 2, p. 1741, and Ep. 20 et 22, ed. Ben and Cuper the 
Bollandist, t. 4, Julij, p. 231. 

ST. ENNODIUS, BISHOP OP PA VIA, C. 

Magkus FeXix Ekwodius was descended of an illustrious 
family, settled in Gaul, and was a kinsman to the greatest lords 
of his time; as, to Faustus, Boetius, Avienus, Olybrius, &c. 
He seemed to call Aries the place of his birth ;(1) but he 
passed lus first years in Italy, and had his education at Milan 

(l)L7.Ep S. 



July 17.] st. £nnodius, b. c. 211 

under the care of an aunt, after whose death he took to wife a 
rich and noble ladj. Eloquence and poetry were the favourite 
studies of hia youth, and he had the misfortune to be drawn 
aistmy into the wide path of the world. But he was struck 
with remorse, and listening to the voice of divine grace, 
changed his life and wept bitterly for his past disorders. Out 
of gratitude to the divine mercy for his call* he entered into 
orders with the consent of his wife, who at the same time 
devoted herself to Grod in a state of perpetual continency. 
Having a pturticular confidence in the powerful intercession of 
St Victor, the martyr at Milan, he earnestly implored through 
it the grace to lead a holy life as he informs us.(] ) 

Being ordained deacon, yet young, by St. Epiphanius of 
Pavia, he from that time despised profane studies to give him- 
self up entirely to those that are sacred. He wrote an apobgy 
for Pope Symmaehus and his council against the schism formed 
in favour of Lauience. He was pitched upon to make a pane- 
gyric upon Theodori^ king of Italy, whom he commends only 
for his victories and temporal success. He wrote the life of St. 
Epiphanius of Pavia, who died in 497, and was succeeded by 
Maximus; likewise that of St. Antony of Lerins, who is 
mentioned in the Roman Martyrology on the 26th of Decem- 
ber, besides several letters and other works both in prose and 
verse. He assures us, that under a violent fever, in which he 
was giren over by the physicians, he had recourse to the hea- 
venly physician through the intercession of his patron St. Vic- 
tor, and that in a moment he found himself restored to perfect 
health.(2) To perpetuate his gratitude for this benefit, he 
wrote a work which he called Eucharisticon ; or, Thanksgiv- 
giving, in which he gives a short account of his life, especially 
of his conversion from the world, and how, through the inter- 
cession of St. Victor, he obtained the grace for his wife thac 
she freely entex«d into his views in their making, by joint con- 
sent, mutual vows of perpetual continency. After the death of 
Maximus he was advanced to the episcopal see of Pavia about 
the year 510, not in 490, as Labbe mistakes ; for, in his Eu- 
charisticon, he says he was only sixteen years old when TheO' 

n> Eochar. (2) Ennod L 8. Et>. 24. ad Faust. 



212 8T- SNNODIUSy B. ۥ ^JULT 17- 

doric came into Italy in 489* He gOYemed his church with a 
zeal and authority worthy a true disciple of St Epiphanius. 

Ennodius was made choice of by Pope Hormisdas to en- 
deayour the reunion of the Eastern to the Western church. 
The emperor Anastasius fomented the division by favouring 
the Eutychian heresy, by banishing many orthodox prelates, 
and by protecting schismatical bishops of Constantinople ; and 
in dissembling (the basest character of a prince) he was a 
second Herod or Tiberius, whose artifices could not leave them 
even in things where their interest was not concerned. Upon 
this errand Ennodius made two journeys to Constantinople, the 
first in the year 515, with Fortunatus bishop of Catana, and 
the second in 517, with Peregrinus, bishop of Misenum. The 
points upon which he was ordered to insist were, that the faith 
of the council of Chalcedon and the letters of Pope Leo against 
Nestorius, Eutyches, Dioscorus, and their followers, Timothy 
Elurus and Peter the Fuller, should be received; the anathema, 
pronounced against Acacius of Constantinople, and Peter of 
Antioch, subscribed; and that the emperor should recal the 
bishops whom he had banished for adhering to the orthodox 
faith and communion. The emperor, whose conduct in all he 
did was equivocal, sent back the legates with a letter wherein 
he declared, that he condemned Nestorius and Eutyches, and 
received the council of Chalcedon. Other things he promised 
to conclude by'ambassadors whom he would send to Borne; but 
his only aim was to gain time, and even whilst Ennodius was 
at Constantinople he condemned to banishment four bishops of 
Elyricum for the Catholic cause, namely, Laurence of Lignida, 
Alcyson of Nicopolis, Gaianus of Natssum, and Evangelus of 
Paulitala. He deferred sending his ambassadors till the 
middle of the next year, and then, instead of bishops as he had 
promised, sent only two laymen, Theopompus, Comes Domes- 
ticohun or captain of his guards^ and Severianus, Comes Con- 
sistorii or counsellor of state, and their instructions were con- 
fined to general protestations of labouring for the peace o^ the 
church. The pope answered, that far from having any need of 
being entreated on that head he threw himself at the emperor's 
feet to implore his protection for the peace and welfare of 
God's church 



July 170 s^- ennodius, b. a 213 

Ennodius^s second legation into the East ifroved as unsuc- 
cessful as the former; for Anastasius rejected the formulary 
which the pope had drawn up for the union, and endeavoured 
to bribe the legates with money. But finding them proof 
against all temptations, he caused them to be sent out of his 
palace through a back door, and put on board a ship with two 
prefects and several Magisterians,* who had orders not to 
suffer them to enter into any city. Notwithstanding this, the 
I legates found an opportunity of dispersing their protestations in 

j all cities ; but the bishops who received them from the dread 

they were under of being accused, sent them all to Constanti- 
nople. Upon this, Anastasius being very much exasperated, 
dismissed about two hundred bishops who were already come to 
a council which was to have been held at Heraclea to compose 
the distracted state of the Oriental church. Such was the con- 
clusion of the promise this emperor had given of concurring to 
restore union between the churches. The people and senate 
reproached him with the breach of the oath he had made to 
that purpose ; but he impiously said that there was a law which 
commanded an emperor to forswear himself and to tell a lie in 
cases of necessity. This confirmed the people in their general 
suspicion, that he had imbibed the opinions of the Manichees. 

St Ennodius was obliged to put to sea in an old rotten vessel, 
and all persons were forbidden to suffer him to land in any port 
of the eastern empire, whereby he was exposed to manifest 
danger. Nevertheless, he arrived safe in Italy and returned to 
Pavia. The glory of suffering for the faith, which his zeal and 
constancy had procured him, far from serving to make him 
slothful or remiss in the discharge of his pastoral duties, was on 
the contrary a spur to him in the more earnest pursuit of vir- 
tue, lest by sluggishness he should deprive himself of the 
advantages which he might seem to have begun to attain. He 
exerted his zeal in the conversion of souls, his liberality in re- 
lieving the poor, and in building and adorning churches, and 
his^ piety and devotion in composing sacred poems on the 

* Magisteriani were officers under the Magister Officiorum, who held 
one of the first dignities in the imperial court, and had a superintendencv 
oTer.the Palatines, inferior officers of the court, the schools or academies 
oi the court, and certain governors. See Bu Cange's Glossar. 



314 8T. 3-Ko iv^ r. c- [Jolt 17« 

Blessed Virgin, St. Cyprian, St Stephen, St* Dionysiud of 
Milan, St. Ambrose, St. Euphemia, St. Noflarius, St. Martin, 
&c,; on the mysteries of Pentecost and on the Ascension; and on 
a baptistery adorned with the pictures of several martyrs whose 
relics were deposited in it. He wrote two new forms of bless- 
ing the paschal candle, in which the divine protection on the 
faithful is implored against winds, storms, and all dangers 
through the malice of our invisible enemies.* St. Ennodius 
died on the 1st of August, 521, being only forty-eight years 
old. He is styled a great and glorious confessor by the Popes 
Nicholas I., and John YIII., and is honoured in the Roman 
Martyrology on the I7th of July. His works were published 
by two Jesuits, F. Andrew Scot at Toumay in 1610, and by 
F. James Sirmond, with notes, at Paris in. 1611, and most 
completely among the works of F. Sirmond, at Paris in 1696, 
t. I. See his works, the letters of Pope Hormisdas, the Pon- 
tifical and F. Sirmond's collections. Also Solier the Bollan- 
dist, t. 4, Julij, p. 271. 

ST. LEO IV., POPE, C. 

He was son of a Roman nobleman, had been educated in the 
monastery of St. Martin without the walls, and was made by 
Sergius JL priest of the four crowned martyrs. He was chosen 
pope after the death of Sergius IL in 847, and governed the 
Church eight years, three months, and some days. The Saracens 
from Calabria had lately plundered St Peter's church on the 
Vatican, and were still hovering about Rome. Leo made it his 
first care to repair the ornamental part of .this church, especially 
the Confession or burying-place of St. Peter with the altar 
which stood upon it To prevent a second plundering of that 
holy place, he, with the approbation and liberal contributions of 
.the emperor Lothaire, enclosed it and the whole Vatican hill 

* This ceremony was much more ancient. Alcuin and Amalarius ascribe 
its institution to Pope TtOBinma ; but others make it of older date. At 
Home the archdeacon on Holy Saturday blessed wax mingled with oil, 
particles of which having a figure of a lamb formed upon them were dis- 
tributed among tiie people. Hence was derived the custom of Agnus 
Deis made of wax sometimes mixed with relics of martyrs, which the 
popes blessed in a solemn manner. See St. Gregory of Tours, de Yit 
Patr. c. 8. The Kom. Order, Alcuin, Sirmond, l>^ot in Ennod. &c. 



JULt 17.] 8T* I^O IV., P. C. 215 

with a waH and buflt there a new rione or quarter of the city, 
which from him is called Leonina. He rebuilt or repaired the 
walls of the city, fortified with fiflkeen towers. Whilst he was 
patting Rome in a posture of defence, the Saracens marched 
towards Porto in order to plunder that town. The Neapolitans 
sent 9X1 army to the assistance of the Eomans : the pope met 
these troops at Ostia, gave them his blessing, and all the sol- 
diers received the holy communion at his hands. After the 
pc^s departure, a bloody battle ensued, and the Saracens were 
all slain, taken, or dispersed. The good pope considered the 
Bins of the people as the chief source of public disasters ; and 
being inflamed with a holy zeal he most vigorously exerted his 
authority for the Reformation of manners and of the discipline 
of the Church. For this purpose he held at Bome a council of 
sixty-seven bishops ; and among other instances, he deposed and 
excommunicated Anastasius, cardinal priest of St. Marcellus's 
church, because he had neglected to reside in his parish. He 
received honourably Ethelwolph king of England, who^ in 854, 
made a pilgrimage to Home. 

Pope Leo directed to all bishops and pastors a Honuly on the 
Pastoral Care, published by Labbe from the Vatican manuscripts, 
and also extant in the Roman PontiflcaL In it all the chief 
functions of the pastoral charge are regulated, and every duty 
enforced with no less learning than piety. Among other mira- 
cles performed by this holy pope it is recorded that by the sign 
of the cross he extinguished a great fire in the city, which 
threatened the church of the prince of the apostles. He died 
on the l7th of July, 855, and Bennet IIL priest of the church 
of St. Calixtus, was immediately chosen pope in his room.* 



* That a pretended woman called Joan intemipted the series of the 
succession between Leo IV. and Bennet III. is a most notorious forgery. 
Lupus Ferrariensis, ep. 103, to Bennet III. Ado in his Chronicle, Rhe- 
gino in his Chronicle, the annals of St. Bertin, Hlncmar ep. 26, Pope 
Kicholas I. the successor of Bennet III. ep. 46, even the calumniators of 
the holy see, Photius 1. De Process. Spir. Sti. and Metrophanes of Smyrna, 
1. de Birinitate Spiritus Sancti, who all lived at that very time, ex- 
pressly testify, that Bennet HI. sncceeded immediately Leo IV. Whence 
Blondel, a yiolent CalTinist, has by an express dissertation demonstrated 
the falsity of this fable. Marianus Scotus at Mentz wrote two himdred 
years f^fter, in 1063, a chronicle, in which mention is first made of this fic« 
tion ; from whence it was inserted in the chronicle of Martinus Polonus, a 
Dominican, in 1277} though it is wanting in the true MS. copy kept ixk 



216 ST. SYMPHOROSA, &C, MM. [JCLY 18. 

He with many tears begged that so formidable a burden might 
not be laid on his shoulders, but could not prevail. Anastasius 
the deposed priest set up for pope, and procured the protection 
of the emperor Lewis 11 ; but the steady unanimity of the people 
in the election of Bennet III. overcame this opposition and he 
was consecrated on the Ist day of September in the same year, 
856, as is related by Anastasius, who was then living, and shortly 
after (before the year 870) Bibliothecarian of the church of 
Bome, the most learned man and the most shining omameBt of 
that age, as Dr. Cave allows him to have been. See Solier the 
Bollandist, t. 4. JuL p. 302. 

ST. TURNINUS, C. 

Was a holy Irish priest and monk, who coming with St. Foilan 
into the Netherlands, laboured with unwearied zed in bringing 
souls to the perfect practice of Christian virtue. The territory 
about Antwerp reaped the chief fruit of his apostolic mission. 
He died there about the close of the eighth century. His relics 
were translated into the principality of Liege, and are honour- 
ably enshrined in a monastery situated on the Sambre. See 
Coigan MSS. ad 17. JuL 



the Vatican library, as Leo Allatiiu aMures us, and in other Old MS. 
copies, as Burnet, (Nouvelies de la Bep. des Letters, Mars, 1687,) Cas- 
leu, (Catal. Bibl. reg. Londin. p. 102,) &c. testi^. Lambecius, the 
most learned keeper of the imperial library 9Jt Vienna, in his excellent 
catalogue of that library, vol. ii. p. 860, has demonstrated this of the 
oldest and best manuscript copies of this chronicle ; also of Marianus 
Scotus. Her name vras foisted into Sigebert's Chronicle, written in 1112; 
for it is not found in the original MS. copy at Gemblours, authentically 
published by Mineus. Flatlna, and the other late copies of Martinus 
t^olonus and Sigebert, borrow it from the first forger in the copy of 
MBirianus Scotus, probably falsified ; certainly of no authority and in- 
consistent ; for there it is said that she sat two years, ^Ye months, and 
that she had studied at Atiiens, where no schools remained long before 
this time. 

As to the porphyry stool shown in a repository belonging to the Late- 
ran church, which is said to have been made use of on accoimt of this 
fable, it is an idle dream. There were two such stools ; one is now shown 
to travellers. It is certainly of old Boman antiquity finely polished, and 
might perhaps be used at the baths or at some superstitious ceremonies. 
The art of cutting or working in porphjrry marble was certainly lost long 
before the ninth age, and not restored before the time of Cosmus the 
Greait of Medicis ; this work is stiU exceedingly slow and expensive. On 
this idle fable see Lambecius, Blondel, Leo Allatius Nat. Alexander* 
Boerhave, &c. 



July 18.] tx. stmphorosa. &c., mm. 217 



JULY XVIII. 
ST. SYMPHOKOSA, 

AND H£B 8EVEN SONS, MARTXRS. 

From their genuine Acts in Buinart, c. 18. Some manuscripts attribute 
them to the celebrated Julius Africanus, who wrote a chronology from 
the beginning of the world to the reign of Heliogabalus, now lost, but 
commended hy Eusehius as an exact and finished work. See Ceillier, 
t. 1, p.668. 

A. D. 120. 

Trajan's persecution in some degree continued during the first 
year of Adrian's reign, whence Sulpicius Severus places the 
fourtli?^general persecution under this emperor. However, he 
put a stop to it nJ)out the year 124, moved probably both by the 
apologies of Quadratus and Aristides, and by a letter which Sere- 
nius Granianus, proconsul of Asia, had written to him in fa- 
vour of the Christians.* Nay he had Christ in veneration, not 
as the Saviour of the world, but as a wonder or novelty, and 
kept his image together with that of ApoUonius Tyanasus. This 
God was pleased to permit, that his afflicted Church might en- 
joy some respite. It was, however, again involved in the dis- 
grace which the Jews (with whom the Pagans at these times in 
some degree confounded the Christians) drew upon themselves 
by their rebellion, which gave occasion to the last entire des- 
truction of Jerusalem in 134. Then, as St. Paulinus informs 
us,(l) Adrian caused a statue of Jupiter to be erected on the 
place where Christ rose from the dead, and a marble Venus on 
the place of his crucifixion ; and at Bethlehem, (2) a grotto con- 
secrated in honour of Adonis or Thammuz, to whom he also 
dedicated the cave where Christ was bom. This prince towards 

(1) St. Paulin. ep. 11, ad Sever. (2) St. Hieron. ep. 13, ad Paul. 



• The Emperor Adrian, nobly born at Italica, near Seville in Spain, 
was cousin-german to Trajan ; and having been adopted by him, upon 
his death ascended the imperial throne in 117. He was extremely inqui- 
sitive, and fond of whatever was surprising or singular, well skilled in all 
curious arts, mathematics, judiciary astrology, physic, and music. But 
this, says Lord Bacon, was an error in his mind, that he desired to com- 
prehend all things, yet neglected the most useful branches of knowledge. 
He was light and fickle ; and so monstrous was his vanity, that he caused 
all to be slain who pretended in any art or science to rival him ; and it, 



£1G 8T« eYMPBa&OBAy &C*j MM. [JuLY 18. 

the end of his roign abandoned himself more than ever to acts 
of cruelty, and being awakened bj a fit of superstition he again 
drew his sword against the innocent flock of Christ. He built 
a magniflcent country t>alaoe at Tibur, now Tivoli* sixteen miles 
from Rome, upon the most agreeable banks of the river Anio, 
now called Teverone. Here he placed whatever could be pro- 
cured most curious out of all the provinces. Having finished 
the building he intended to dedicate it by heathenish <;eremonies 
which he began by oflering sacrifices, in order to induce the 
idols to deliver their oracles* The demons answered : '* The 
widow Symphorosa and her seven sons daily torment us by in- 
voking their God ; if they sacrifice, we promise to be favourable 
to your vows.*' 

This lady lived with her seven sons upon a plentiful estate 
which they enjoyed at Tivoli> and she liberally expended her 
treasures in assisting the poor, especially in relieving the Chris- 
tians who suffered for the faith. She was widow of St. GetuHus 
or Zoticus, who had been crowned with martyrdom with his 
brother Amantius. They were both tribunes of legions or 
colonels in the army, and are honoured among the martyrs on 
the 10th of June. Symphorosa had buried their bodies in her 
own farm, and sighing to see her sons and herself united with 
them in immortal bliss, she prepared herself to follow them by 
the most fervent exercise of all good works. 

Adrian, whose superstition was Alarmed at this answer of his 
gods or their priests, ordered her and her sons to be seized, and 
brought before him. She came with joy in her countenance,, 
praying all the way for herself and her children, that God would 
grant them the grace to confess his holy name with constancy. 
The emperor exhorted them at first in mild terms to sacrifice. 

was accounted great prudence in a certain person that he would not dis. 
pute his best \rith him, alleging afterwards that it was reasonable to 
yield to him who commanded thirty legions. The beginning of tins 
prince's reign was bloody ; yet he is commended in it for two things ; the 
first 2S mentioned by Spartian, that when he came to the empire he laid 
aside all former enmities, and forgot past injuries : insomuch that, being 
made emperor, he said to one who had been his capital enemy : ** Thou 
hast now escaped." The other is, that when a woman cried to him as he 
was passing by: ** Hear me, Caesar f* and he answered, **I have not 
leisure." The woman replied : ** Then cease to reign." " Noli ergo im- 
perare." Whereupon be^ si .'^Dped and heard her cC'inplaint. 



JuVt I8.3 ST. STXrHulLOSJ^ <kc^ MX. S19 

SjmpiionMi ansvered: ''Mj hatJund GetefioB and bk bioUier 
AmandaG^ being joor tdbima^ batve snflfeied divers tonnents 
forlbejinBeof JeswQiriatnClierthaaaaciificeto^^ and 
thejbave vanqniAod joiir demoos I17 thur death, c hnoang to 
be beheaded nther than to be orercome. The death they sat- 
fered dieir i^n ^kok i g n op uBj among men, but g^oiy among 
the aagela ; and they noir -flijoj eternal life in heaven * The 
^npemr ehangiag hia vnioe» aaid to her in an angry tone: 
"Ed&ersaerifiDeto the moat powcffnl gods, with thy sons, or 
thon ibyKlf diab be oflfared up as a sacrifice together with 
them.^ Syn^harasa answered : ^To«ir gods cannot receive me 
as a sacrifice; bat if I am hnrnt for the name of Jesos Christ 
my death will increase the torment whidi yonr devik endure in 
Iheir fiames. But can I hope for S9 'vceat a h appin e ss as to be 
offered wkh my ddUben a sacrifice to the true and living God?" 
Adrian said: ^'Either sacrifioe to my gods, or you shall all 
miserably perish." Symphorosa said: "Do not imagine that 
fear will make me change ; 1 am desirous to be at rest with my 
hasband whom you put to death for the name of Jesus Christ." 
The emperor then ordered her to be carried to the temple of 
Hercules, where she was first buffeted on the cheeks, and after^ 
wards hung up by the hair of her head. When no torments 
were able to shake her invincible soul, the emperor gave orders 
that she should be thrown into the river with a great stono 
fastened about her neck. Her brother Eugenius, who was one 
of the chief of the council of Tibur, took up her body, and 
buried it on the road near that town. 

The next day the emperor sent for her seven sons all together, 
and exhorted them to sacrifice and not imitate the obstinacy of 
their mother. He added the severest threats, but finding all to 
be in vain, he ordered seven stakes with engines and puUies to 
be planted round the temple of Hercules, and the pious youtlis 
to be bound upon them ; their limbs were in this posture tor- 
tured and stretohed in such a manner that the bones were dis- 
jointed in all parts of their bodies. The young noblemen, far 
from yielding under the violence of their tortures, were encou- 
raged by each other's example, and seemed more eager to suffer 
than the executioners were to torment. At length the emperor 
commanded them to be put to death, in the same plac3 where 



220 ST. SYUPHOROSA, &C., HU. [JULT ]8. 

thej were, different ways. The eldest called Crescens had bis 
throat cut ; the second called Julian was stabbed in the breast ; 
Nemesios the third was pierced with a lance in his heart ; Pri- 
mativus received his wound in the bellj, Justin in the bacb, 
Stacteus on his sides, and Eugenius the youngest died by his 
body being deft asunder into two parts across his breast from 
the head downwards. The emperor came the next day to the 
teqjplo of Hercules, and gave orders for a deep hole to be dug, 
and all the bodies of these martyrs to be thrown into it. The 
place was called by the heathen priest, The seven JBiothancUi ; 
which word signifieth in Greek and in the style of art magic, 
such as die by a violent death, particularly such as were put to 
the torture. After this, a stop was put to the persecution for 
about eighteen months.* During which interval of peace the 
Christians took up the remains of these martyrs, and interred 
them with honour on the Tiburtin road, in the midway between 
Tivoli and Home, where still are seen some remains of a church 
erected in memory of them in a place called to this day, The 
fieven Brothers.^ Their bodies were translated by a pope called 
Stephen, into the church of the Holy Angel in the fish-market 
in Rome, where they were found in the pontificate of Pius IV. 
with an inscription oh a plate which mentioned this translation.(l) 
St. Symphorosa set not before the eyes of her children the 

(1) Ado, Usiiard; Mart. Rom. cum notis Baronii et Lubin, 

* Adrian became more cruel than ever towards the end of his life, and 
«vithout any just cause put to death several persons of distinction. At 
last he fell sick of a dropsy at his house at Tibur. Finding that no medi- 
cines gave him any relief he grew most impatient and fretful under his 
lingering illness, and wished for death, often asking for poison or a sword, 
which no one would give him, though ho offered them money and impu- 
nity. 'BhA physician dew himself th^t he might not be compelled to give 
him poison. A slave named Mastor, a barbarian noted for his strength 
and boldness, whom the emperor had employed in hunting, was, partly 
by threats, partly by promises, prevailed upon to undertake it ; but in- 
stead of complying, was seized with fear, and durst not strike him, and 
fled. The ujihappy tyrant lamented day and night, that death refused 
to obey and deliver lum who had caused the death of so many others. 
He at length hastened his death by eating and drinking things contrary 
to his health in his distemper, and expired with these words in his moutid, 
** The multitude of physicians hath killed the emperor." " Turba me- 
dicorum Osesarem perdidit." (See Dio et Spartian in Adr.) He died in 
138, being sixty-two years old, and having reigned twenty-one years. 

t A sette Frate, in the villa of l^laffei, mne miles from Rome. See 
Aringhi, Boma Subtcr. L 3*<c. U 



«)1;LY 18.J ST. PHILASTRTUft. B. C. 221 

advantages of their riches and birth, or of their father's ho- 
nourable employments and great exploits ; but those of his piety 
and the triumph of his martyrdom. She continually entertained 
them on the glory of heaven, and the happiness of treading in 
the steps of our Divine Redeemer, by the practice of humility, 
patience, resignation, p-nd charity, which virtues are best learned 
in the path of humiliations and sufferings. In these a Christian 
finds his solid treasure, and his unalterable peace and joy both 
in life and death. The honours, riches, applause, and pleasures 
with which the worldly sinner is sometimes surrounded, can 
never satiate his desires ; often they do not even reach his heart, 
which under this gorgeous show bleeds as it were inwardly, 
while silent grief, like a worm at ^e core, preys upon his vitals. 
Death at last always draws aside the curtain, and shows them 
to have been no better than mere dreams and shadows which 
passed in a moment, but have left a cruel sting behind them, 
which fills the mind with horror, dread, remorse, and despair, 
and racks the whole soul with confusion, perplexities, and alarms. 

ST. PHILASTRIUS, BISHOP OF BRESCIA, C. 

We know nothing of this saint's country, only that he quitted 
it and the house and inheritance of his ancestors, like Abraham, 
the more perfectly to disengage himself from the ties of the world. 
He lived in perfect continency, and often passed whole nights 
in meditating on the holy scriptures. Being ordained priest he 
travelled through many provinces to oppose the infidels and 
heretics, especially the Arians, whose fury was at that time 
formidable over the whole church. His zeal and lively faith 
gave him courage to rejoice with the apostles in suffering for 
the truth, and to bear in his body the marks of the stripes which 
he received by a severe scourging which he underwent for 
Jesus Christ. At Milan he vigorously opposed the endeavours 
of Auxentius, the impious Arian wolf, who laboured to destroy 
the flock of Christ there ; and our saint was its strenuous 
guardian before St. Ambrose was made bishop of that city. He 
afterwards went to Brescia, and finding the inhabitants of that 
place savage and barbarous, ahnost entirely ignorant in spiritual 
things, yet desirous to learn, he took much pains to instruct 
them, and had the comfort to see his labours crowned with in< 

VOT,. VII. P> 



222 8X. FHILASTKIUS, B. C. [[JuLT 18L 

credible sucoejs. He rooted out the tares of many errors, and 
cultivated this wild soil with such assiduity that it became fruit- 
ful in good works. Being chosen the seventh bishop of this 
flee, he exerted himself in the discharge of all his pastoral 
functions with such vigour as even to outdo himself; and the 
authority of his high dignity added the greater weight to his 
endeavours. He was not equal in learning to the Ambroses 
and Austins of that age ; but what was wanting in that respect 
was abundantly made up by the example of his life, his spirit 
of perfect humility and piety, and his unwearied application to 
every pastoral duty ; and he is an instance of what eminent 
service and moderate abilities may be capable of in the church, 
when they are joined with an heroic degree of virtue. 

To caution his flock against the danger of errors in faith, he 
wrote his Catalogue of Heresies, in which he does not- take that 
tvord in its strict sense and according to the theological defini- 
tion ; but sometimes puts in the number of heresies certain 
opinions which he rejects only as less probable, and which are 
problematically disputed ; as that the witch of Endor evoked 
the very soul of Samuel.* He every where breathes an ardent 
zeal for the Catholic faith. St. Gaudentius extols his profound 
humility, his meekness, and sweetness towards all men, which 
was such that it seemed natural to him to repay injuries only 
with kindness and favours, and he never discovered the least 
emotions of anger. By his charity and patience he gained the 
hearts of all men. In all he did he sought no interest but that 
of Jesus Christ ; and sovereignly contemning all earthly things 
he pursued and valued only those that are eternal. Being most 
mortified and sparing in his diet and apparel, he seemed to 
know no other use of money than to employ it in relieving the 
poor ; and he extended his liberality, not only to all that were 
reduced to beggary, but also to tradesmen and all others, whom 
he often generously enabled to carry on, or when expedient to 
ec large their business. Though he conmiunicated himself with 
surprising charity and goodness to all sorts of persons of every 

• The best editidbs of St. Philastrius's book De Haeresibus, are those 
printed at Hauiburg in 1721, by the care of Fabricius, who has illus- 
trated it with notes ; and that procured by Cardinal Quirini at Breads 
in 1738, together with tlie WOTka of St. Gaudeuiius. 



July 18.] st. abnoul, b, c. 223 

age, sex, and condition, he seemed always to receive the poor 
with particular affection. He trained up many pious and emi- 
nent disciples, among whom are named St. Gaudentius, and 
one Benevolas, who in his life was a true imitator of the apos- 
tles ; and being afterwards preferred to an honourable post in 
the Emperor Valentinian's court, chose rather to lay it down 
than to promulgate a rescript of the Empress Justina in favour 
of the Arians. St. Austin «aw St. Philastrius at Milan with 
St. Ambrose in the year 384.(1) He died soon after, and be- 
fore St. Ambrose, his metropolitan, who after his death placed 
St. Gaudentius in the see of Brescia. This saint solemnized 
every year with his people the day on which his master, St. 
Philastrius, passed to glory, and always honoured it with a 
panegyric ; but of these discourses only the fourteenth is ex- 
tant. See the life or encomium of St. Philastrius by St. Gau- 
dentius, published by Surius. Also the accurate history of the 
church of Brescia, entitled Pontificum Brixianorum series com- 
mentario historico illustrata, opera J. H. Gradonici. C. R. 
Brixie, 1755, t. 1. 

ST. ARNOUL, BISHOP OF METZ, C 

Among the illustrious saints who adorned the court of King 
Clotaire the Great, none is more famous than St. Arnoul. He 
was a Frenchman, born of rich and noble parents ; and, having 
been educated in learning and piety, was called to the court of 
King Theodebert, in which he held the second place among the 
great officers of state, being next to Gondulph, mayor of the 
palace. Though young, he was equally admired for prudence 
in the council and for valour in the field. By assiduous prayer, 
fasting, and excessive abnsdeeds, he joined the virtues of a 
perfect Christian with the duties of a courtier. Having married 
a noble lady called Doda, he had by her two sons, Clodulf and 
Ansegisus ; by the latter the Carloviftgian race of kings of 
France descended from St. Arnoul. Fearing the danger of 
entangling his soul in many affairs which passed through his 
hands, he desired to retire to the monastery of Lerins; bin 
being crossed in the execution of his project, pnsscd to the 

O) S. Aug. P*ef, I. d« iiKn.«. 



224 ST. ARMODL, B. C. [JOLT 18. 

court of King Clotaire. That great monarch, the first year in 
which he reigned over all France, assented to the earnest una- 
nimous request of the clergy and people of Metz, demanding 
Amoul for their bishop. Our saint did all that could be done 
to change the measures taken, but in vain. He Tras conse- 
crated bishop in 614, and his wife Doda took the religious veil 
at Triers. The king obliged Amoul still to assist at his coun- 
cils, and to fill the first place at his court. The saint always 
wore a hair shirt under his garments ; he sometimes passed 
three days without eating, and his usual food was only barley 
and water. He seemed to regard whatever he possessed as the 
patrimony of the poor, and his alms seemed to exceed all 
bounds. His benevolence took in all the objects of charity, but 
his discretion singled out those more particularly whose greater 
necessities called more pressingly upon his bounty. 

In 622 Clotaire II. divided his dominions, and making his 
son Dagobert king of Austrasia, appointed St. Amoul duke of 
Austrasia and chief counsellor, and Pepin of Landen mayor of 
his palace. The reign of this prince was virtuous, prospe- 
rous, and glorious, so long as Amoul remained at the helm ; 
but the saint anxiously desiring to retire from all -business, that 
he might more seriously study to secure his own salvation be- 
fore he should be called hence, never ceased to solicit the king 
for leave to quit the court Dagobert long refused his consent ; 
but at length, out of a scruple lest he should oppose the call of 
heaven, granted it, though with the utmost reluctance. St. 
Arnoul resigned also his bishopric, and retired into the deserts 
of Vosge, near the monastery of Remiremont, on the top of a 
high mountain, whcro a hermitage is at this day standing. 
Here the saint laboured daily with fresh fervour to advance in 
the path of Christian perfection ; for the greater progress a per- 
son has already made in virtue, the more does the prospect en- 
large upon him, and thq more perfectly does he see how much 
is yet wanting in him, and how great a scope is left for exert- 
ing his endeavours still more. Who will pretend to have made 
equal advances with St. Paul towards perfection ? yet he .was 
far from ever thinking that he had finished his work, or that he 
might remit anything in his endeavours. On the contrary, we 
And him imitating the alacrity of those who run in a race, who 



July 18.] st. fredekic, b. m. 226 

do not so muoh consider what ground they have already cleared, 
as how much still remains to call forth their utmost eagerness 
and strength. Nor can there he a more certain sign that a 
person has not yet arrived at the lowest and first degree of vir- 
tue, than that he should think he does not need to aim higher. 
In this vigorous pursuit St. Amoul died on the I6th of August 
in 640. His remains were brought to Metz, and enrich the 
great abbey which bears his name. The Roman Martyrology 
mentions him on the 18th of July, on which day the translation 
of his relics was performed; the Gallican on the 16th of Au- 
gust. See his life, faithfully compiled by his successor, in 
Mabillon, Act. Bened. t. 2. p. 150. Also Calmet, Hist, de 
Lorraine, t 1. 1. 9. n. 10, &c., p. 378, 381, &c. ; Bosch the 
Bollandist, t. 5. Jul. p. 423 ; and D. Cajot, Benedictin monk 
of St. Arnoul's, Les Antiquit^s des Metz, an. 1761. 

ST. ARNOUL, M. 

Jb preached the faith among the Franks after St. Remigius 
had baptized King Clov7S. He suffered much in his apostolic 
labours, and was at length martyred in the Aquilin forest be- 
tween Paris and Chartres, about the year 534. His name is 
highly reverenced at Paris, Rheims, and over all France. See 
Cuper the Bollandist, Julij, t. 4. p. 396. 

ST. FREDERIC, BISHOP OF UTRECHT, M. 

He was descended of a most illustrious family among the Fri- 
8ons, and according to the author of his life, was great grandson 
to Radbod, king of that country, before it was conquered by 
the French. He was trained up in piety and sacred literature 
among the clergy of the church of Utrecht. His fasts and 
other austerities were excessive, and his watchings in fervent 
prayer were not less inimitable. Being ordained priest, he was 
charged by Bishop Ricfrid with the care of instructing the 
catechumens, and that good prelate dying in 820, he was chosen 
the eighth bishop of Utrecht from St. Willibrord.* The holy 

• Utrecht was an archbishopric in the time of St. Willibrord, but ttom 
his death remained a bishopric subject first to Mentz, afterwards to Co- 
iogn, till, in the reign of Philip II., Paul IV. in 1559, restored the arch- 
Idshoprics of Utrecht and Cambray, and erected Mechlin a third, wiUi 



226 ST. FRZDZRIC, B. V. [JULT 18. 

man, with n^anj tears, before the clergj and people, declared, 
in xnoTing terms, his incapacity and unworthiness, but by the 
authority of the Emperor Lewis Debonnaire was compelled to 
submit He therefore repaired to his metropolitan, the arch- 
bishop of Mentz, and at Aix-la-Chapelle received the investi- 
ture by the ring and crosier, and was consecrated by the bishops, 
m presence of the emperor, who zealously recommended to him 
the extirpation of the remains of idolatry in Friesland The 
new bishop was met by the clergy and others of his church, and 
by them honourably conducted from the Bhine to Utrecht. He 
immediately applied himself to establish everywhere the best 
order, and sent zealous and virtuous labourers into the northern 
parts, to root out the relics of idolatry which still subsisted 
there. 

Charlemagne, by treating with severity the conquered Prisons 
and Saxons, had alienated their minds from his empire ; but 
upon his death in 814, Lewis his son, whom he had made in his 
own life-time king of Aquitain, came to the empire, by exclud- 
ing his little nephew Bernard, king of Italy, grandson of Pepin, 
elder brother to this Lewis, whom their father made king of 
Italy, but who died in 810, leaving that kingdom to his son and 
grandson both named Bernard. Lewis upon his accession to the 
throne eased the Saxons of their heavy taxes, and showed them 
so much lenity that he gained their hearts to the empire for 
ever, and, from his courtesy and from this an4 other actions of 
clemency sumamed The Debonnaire, or the Gracious. He lost 
liis queen Irmingarde, who died at Anglers in 818, by whom he 
had three sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and Lewis. The first he made 
king of Italy,* the second king of Aquitain, and Lewis king of 
Bavaria ; reserving to himself the rest of Bavaria and France. 
In 819 he married Judith, daughter of Guelph, count of Aldorff, 
by whom he had Charles the Bald, afterwards emperor and 

the dignity of primate. To Utrecht he subjected the new bishoprics of 
Haerlem, Middleburg, Deventer, Lewarden, and Groeningen ; to Mech- 
Un, those of Antwerp, Ghent, Bruges, Ipres, Bois-le-Duc and Buremond ; 
to Cambray, those of Arras and Toumay, with two new ones, St. Omer 
and Namur. 

* He also gave him Austrasia, great part of which from that age has 
been called Lorrain, either from this Lothaire or rather bis younger soa 
of the same name, whom he left king of that oonntry. 



JULT 18.1 8T. FOEDEBIC, B. M. ?*27 

king of France. She was an ambitious atid wanton woman ; 
her adulteries gave great scandal to the people, and her over- 
bearing insolence and continual intrigues embroiled the staie, 
and drove the three eldest sons into open rebellion against their 
father.* Nothing can excuse the methods to which these un- 
natural princes had recourse, under pretence of remedying the 
public disorders, which sprang from the weakness of their father, 
and the malice of a hated mother-in-law. But the scandals of 
her lewdness stirred up the zeal of our holy pastor to act the 
part of a second John the Baptist. The contemporary author 
of the life of Wala, abbot of Lorbie, who was deeply concerned 
in the secret transactions of that court, confidently charges her 
with incest and adultery with her relation and favourite minister, 
Bernard, count of Barcelona. The author of the life of St. Fre- 
deric says, her marriage with Lewis was incestuous, and within 
the forbidden degrees of affinity : but this circumstance could 
not have escaped the censure of her enemies ; and from their 
silence is rejected by MabiUon and others as fabulous. 

Whatever the scandals of her gallantries were, St. Frederic, 
the neighbourhood of whose see gave him free access to the 
court, then chiefly kept at Aix-la-Chapelle, admonished her of 
them with an apostolic freedom and charity, but without any 
other effect than that of drawing upon himself the fury and re- 
sentment of a second Jezebel, if we may believe the historians 

* Lewis left to her the management of all- affairs, made her elder bro- 
ther, Kodolph Guelph, gc ''^emor of Bavaria, and her younger brother, 
Conrad, governor of Italy and destined the best part of the kingdoms of 
Germany and France to Charles the Bald, the son which she bore him ; 
to which dominions the sons by the first wife thought they had a prior 
claim. They, by an unjustifiable breach of their duty, twice took up 
arms against their father ; first in 830, when the Empress Judith was 
banished to a nunnery in Gascony, and the emperor imprisoned ; but he 
was soon released by the Germans, and recalled Judith and her two bro>- 
thers. In the second rebellion, in 833, Lothaire, the eldest son, banished 
Judith to Verona in Italy, and shut up her son Charles in the abbey .of 
Pruim, near Triers, and the weak emperor himself in the abbey of St. 
Medard's at Soissons, after he had in an assembly of the states at Com- 
peigiie, basely confessed himself justly deposed from the empire, and 
guilty of the crimes which were laid to his charge. He was afterwards 
sent to the abbey of St. I>3ny*s near Paris, and there clothed with th«. 
habit of a monk ; but soon after delivered by his two younger sons, Pepin 
and Lewis, and restored to his throne. Judith after all these disturbances 
so dexterously managed him that, at his death in 840. he left to her euit 
Charles the m marchv of France 



228 8T. FREDEBIC, B. M. [JCLY 18. 

of tliat age* Our saint suffered also another persecution. The 
inhabitants of Wallacria, now called Walcharen, one of the 
principal islands of Zealand, belonging to the Netherlands, were 
of all others the most barbarous, and most averse to the maxims 
of the gospeL On which account St. Frederic, when he sent 
priests into the northern uncultivated provinces of his diocess^ 
took this most dangerous and difficult part chieflj to himself ; 
and nothing here gave him more trouble than the incestuous 
marriages contracted within the forbidden degrees, and the se- 
paration of the parties. To extirpate this inveterate evil be 
employed assiduous exhortations, tears, watching, prayer, and 
fasting ; summoned an assembly of the principal persons of the 
island, and earnestly recommended the means to banish this 
abuse from among them, broke many such pretended marriages, 
and reconciled many persons who had done sincere penance to 
God and his church. He composed a prayer to the Blessed 
Trinity with an exposition of that adorable mystery against he- 
resies, which for many ages was used in the Netherlands with 
great devotion. The reputation of his sanctity made hiAi to be 
considered as one of the most illustrious prelates of the church, 
as appears. from a poem of Rabanus Maurus, his contemporary, 
in praise of his virtue, published with notes among his poetical 
works, together with those of Fortunatu& by F. Brower, S. J.(l) 
Whilst this holy pastor was intent only upon the duties of his 
charge, one day when he came from the altar having said mass, 
as he was going to kneel down in the chapel of St. John Bap- 
tist to perform his thanksgiving and other private devotions, he 
was stabbed in the bowels by two assassins. He expired in a 
few minutes, reciting that verse of the hundred and fourteenth 
psalm — I will please the Lordin the land of the living. The 
author of his life says these assassins were employed by the em- 
press Judith, who could not pardon the liberty he had taken to 
reprove her incest. William of Malmesbury(2) and other his- 
torians assert the same ; and this seems clearly to have been 
the true cause and manner of his martyrdom ; William Heday(3) 
Beka,(4) £mmius,(6) and many others confirpi the same. Baro- 

(I) P. 204. (2) L. 1, de gestU Jontif. Angl. p. 197. 

(3) Hist. Episcop. Ultraj. {i) Chron. 

< 5) Ubbo Emmius, Beram Friaic. 1. 3, p. 74. 



JdLT 18.] ST. ODULPH, c 229 

nius in his annals, Mabillon, Le Cointe, and Baillet think these 
assassins were rather sent bjsome of the incestuous inhabitants 
of Wallacria, but this opinion is destitute of the authority 
of ancient historians. The martyr's body was buried in the same 
church of St. Saviour, called Oude-Munster, at Utrecht. His 
death happened on the 17th July, 838, as Mabillon has proved. 
See the life of St. Frederic withJKie notes of Cuper the Bollan- 
dist, Julij, t. 4, p. 452, and Batavia Sacra, p. 99. Also Heda's 
History of the Bishops of Utrecht, Beka, and Emmius. 

ST. ODULPH, CANON OF UTRECHT, C. 

He was bom of noble French parents, and distinguished in his 
youth by the innocence of his manners, and his remarkable 
progress in learning and piety. Being ordained priest, he was 
made curate of Oresscoth in Brabant. St. Frederic afterwards, 
by urgent entreaties, engaged him, for the greater glory of God, 
to be his strenuous assistant in reforming the manners of the 
fierce Frisons ; in which undertaking it is incredible what fa- 
tigues he underwent, and what proofs he gave of heroic patience, 
meekness, zeal, and charity. Contemplationiand prayer were the 
support and refreshment of his soul under his continual labours 
and austerities. Several wonderful predictions of things which 
happened long after his death, are recorded in his life. In his old 
age he resided at Utrecht, and died canon of the cathedraL To 
his last moments he allowed himself no indulgence, and never 
relaxed his fervour in labour ; but rather redoubled his pace the 
nearer he saw his end approach, knowing this to be the condi- 
tion of the Christian's hire, and fearing to lose by sloth and for 
want of perseverance the crown for which he fought. His fasts, 
his watchings, his assiduity in prayer, his almsdeeds, his zeal 
in instructing the people, and exhorting all men to the divine 
love and the contempt of all earthly things, seemed to gather 
strength with his years. Being seized with a fever, he with 
joy foretold his last moment, Knd earnestly exhorting his bre- 
thren to fervour, and commending himself to their prayers, he 
promised, by the divine mercy, never to forget them' before 
God, and happily departed this life in the ninth age, on the 
12th of June, on which day his festival was kept with great so- 
lenmity at Utrecht and Staveren. Several churches and cha- 



230 ST. BRUNO, B. C. [JuLY 18» 

pels bear his name ; but the chapei at the New Bridge in Am- 
sterdam, called Olofs-Eapel, was erected by the Danish Bailors 
in memory of St. Olaus, king of Norway and Martyr, not of 
St Odulph, as the Bollandists and some others have mistook. 
See the life of St. Odulph ii^ the Bollandists, Junij, t. 2, and 
Batavia Sacra, p. 106. 

ST. BRUNO, BISHOP OF SEGNI, C. 

Re was of the illustrious family of the lords of Asti in Pie- 
mont, and born near that city. From his cradle he considered 
that man's happiness is only to be found in loving God : and to 
please him in all his actions was his only and his most ardent 
desire. He made his studies in the monastery of St. Per- 
petuus, in the diocess of Asti. Bosch proves that he never 
was canon of Asti, but enjoyed some years a canonry at 
Sienna, as he himself informs us. In the Roman council in 
1 079, he defended the doctrine of the Catholic Church con- 
cerning the blessed eucharist against Berengarius ; and Pope 
Gregory VII. nominated him bishop of Segni in the ecclesias- 
tical state in 1081. Bruno, who had been compelled to submit, 
after a long and strenuous resistance, served his flock, and on 
many important occasions the universal church with unwearied 
zeal. Gregory VII. who died in 1085, Victor III. formerly 
abbot of mount Cassino, who died in 1087, and Urban II. who 
had been scholar to St. Bruno (afterwards institutor of the Car- 
thusians) at Rheims, then a monk at Cluni, and afterwards 
bishop of Ostia, had the greatest esteem for our saint. He at- 
tended Urban 11. into France in 1095, and assisted at the coun- 
cil of Tours in 1096. After his return into Italy he continued 
to labour for the sanctification of his soul and that of his flock, 
till not being able any longer to resist his inclination for soli- 
tude and retirement, he withdrew to mount Cassino, and put on 
the monastic habit. The people of Segni demanded him back ; 
but Oderisus, abbot of mount Cassino, and several cardinals, 
whose mediation the saint employed, prevailed oipon the pope to 
allow his retreat. The abbot Oderisus was succeeded by Otho 
in 1 1 05, and this latter dying in 1 107, the monks chose bishop 
Bruno abbot He was often employed by the pope in important 



ilOLT 18.J 8T. BRUNO, B. C. 231 

commissions, and by his writings laboured to support ecclesias- 
tical discipline* and to extirpate simonj. This vice he looked 
upon as the source of all the disorders which excited the tears 
of all zealous pastors in the church, bj filling the sanctuary with 
hirelings, whose worldly spirit raises an insuperable opposition 
to that of the gospel. What would this saint have said had he 
seen the collation of benefices, and the frequent translations of 
bishops in some parte, which serve to feed and inflame avarice 
and ambition in those in whom above all others, a perfect dis- 
engagement from earthly things and crucifixion of the passions 
ought to lay a foundation of the gospel temper and spirit? 
Paschal II. formerly a monk of Cluni, succeeded Urban 11. in 
the pontificate in 1099. By his order St. Bruno having been 
abbot of mount Cassino about four years, returned to his 
bishopric, having resigned his abbacy, and left his abbatial 
crozier on the altar. He continued faithfully to discharge the 
episcopal functions to his death, which happened at Segni on 
the 31st of August in 1 125. He was canonized by Lucius III. 
in 1183, and* his feast is kept in Italy on the 18th of July. See 
his anonymous authentic life, and Leo of Ostia and Peter the 
deacon in their chronicle of mount Cassino, with the notes of 
Solier the Bollandist, t. 4, Julij. p. 471. Also Dom. Maur 
Marchesi, dean of mount Cassino, in l)p| apparatus (prefixed to 
the works of this saint) printed at Venice in 1651 ; Mabillon, 
AnnaL Bencd. 1. 70, Ceillier, t. 21, p. 101. 

• The works of St. Bruno of Segni, or of Asti, with a preliminarv 
dissertation of Dom Maur Marchesi, were printed at Venice in 1651. in 
two vols, folio, and in the Bibl. Patr. at Lyons in 1677, t. 20. They 
consist of comments on several parts of scripture, one hundred and forty, 
five sermons, several dogmatical treatises and letters ; and a life of St, 
Leo IX. and another of St. Peter, bishop of Anagnia, whom Paschal IL 
canonized. This latter the Bollandists have published on the 9d of uipril, 



232 ST. VINCENT, c. [July 19 



JULY XIX. 
ST. VINCENT OF PAUL, C 

FOUNDER OF THE LAZABITE8, OB FATHERS OF THE MISSION* 

From his edifying life written by Abelly, bishop. of Rodez, and again by 
the celebrated continuator of Toumely'a Theological Lectures, Dr. 
Peter Collet, in two volumes, quarto, Nancy, 1748. See also Perrault, 
Hommes Illustr. Helyot, Hist, des Ord. ReUg. t. 8, p. 64, and the 
bull of his canonization, published by Clement XU. in 1737» apud 
Bened. XIV. de canoniz. t. 4, Append, p. 363. 

. A. D. 1660. 

Even in the most degenerate ages, when the true maxims of 
the gospel seem almost obliterated* among the generality of thoar 
who profess it, God fails not, for the glory of his holy name, to 
raise to himself faithful ministers to revive the same in the 
hearts of many. Having, by the perfect crucifixion of the old 
man in their hearts, and the gift of prayer, prepared them to 
become vessels of his grace, he replenishes them with the spirit 
of his apostles that they may he qualified to conduct others in 
the/paths of heroic ja||i||^ in which the Holy Ghost was him 
self their interior ^^^B One of these instruments of the 
divine mercy was l^^Hpncer.t of PauL He was a native ol 
Poui, a village nearTAtqs in Gascony, not far from the Pyre- 
nsean mountains. His parents, WiUiam of Paul and Bertranda 
'of Morass, occupied a very small farm of which they were the 
proprietors, and upon the produce of .which they brought up a 
family of four sons and two daughters. The chifdren were brought 
up in innocence, and inured from ^Wir* infancy to the most 
laborious part of country labour. 9lb Vincent, the third son, 
gave extraordinary proofs of his winiid'capacity, and from his 
infancy showed a seriousness, and an aflfegtion for holy prayer 
far beyond his age. He spent great part of his time in that 
exercise when he was employed in the fields to keep the cattle. 
That he might give to Christ in the persons of the poor all that 
was in his power, he deprived himself of his own little conve- 
niences and necessaries for that purpose in whatever it was 
possible for him to retrench from his own use. This earl/ fer 
vent consecration of himself to God« and these little sacrifice? 



July 19*] st. vincent, c. 233 

which may be compared to the widow's two mites in the gospel, 
were indications of the sincere ardour with which he began to 
seek God from the first opening of his reason to know and love 
him ; and were doubtless a means to draw down upoiv him from 
the author of these graces other greater blessings. His father 
was determined by the sttoug inclinations of the child to learn- 
ing and piety, and the quickness of his parts, to procure him a 
school education. He placed him first under the care of the 
Cordeliers or Franciscan friars at Acqs, paying for his board 
and lodging the small pension of sixty French livres, that is, 
not six pounds English, a year. 

Vincent had l)een four years at the schools when Mr. Com- 
met, a gentleman of that town, being much taken with his virtue 
and prudence, chose him sub-preceptor to his children, and 
enabled him to continue his studies without being any longer a 
burden to his parents. At twenty years of age, in 1596, he was 
qualified to go to the university of Toulouse, where he spent 
seven years in the study of divinity, and commenced bachelor 
in that faculty. In that city he was promoted to the holy 
orders of sub-deacon and deacon in 1598, and of priesthood in 
1600, having received the tonsure anigjjw^r orders a few days 
before he left Acqs. He seemed alre^^^Hbwed with all those 
virtues which make up the charact^j^^Krorthy and zealous 
minister of the altar ; yet he knew not tu*tull extent of heroic 
entire self-denial, by which a man becomes dead and crucified 
to all inordinate self-will ; upon which perfect self-denial are 
engrafted the total sacrifice of the heart to God, perfect hu- 
milij;y, and that purity and ardour of divine charity which con- 
stitute the saint, ▼incent was a good proficient in theology 
and other sciences of th^ schools, and had diligently applied 
himself to the study of the maxims of- Christian virtue in the 
gospel, in the lives of the saints, and in the doctrine of the 
greatest masters of a spiritual life. But there remained a new 
science for him to learn, which was to cost him much more than 
bare study and labour. This consists in perfect experimental 
and feeling sentiments of humility, patience, meekness, and 
charity ; which science is only to be learned by the good use of 
severe interior and exterior trials. This is the mystery of the 
^l*0ss, unknown to those whom the Holy Ghost has not led intg 



234 8T. VIKCENT C. [JULIT 19- 

this important secret of bis conduct in preparing souls for the 
great works of his grace. The prosperity of the wicked will 
appear at the last day to have often been the most dreadful 
judgment,^ and a state in which thej were goaded on in the 
pursuit of their evil courses ; whilst, on the contrary, it will 
then be manifested to all men, that the afflictions of the saints 
have been the greatest effects of divine mercy. Thus, by a 
chain of temporal disasters, did God lay in the soul of Vincent 
the solid foundation of that high virtue to which by his grace 
he afterwards raised him. 

The saint went to Marseilles in 1605, to receive a legacy of 
five hundred crowns which had been left him by a friend who 
died in that city. Intending to return to Toulouse, he set out 
in a feluca or large boat from Marseilles to Narbonne, but was 
met on the way by three brigantines of African pirates. The 
infidels seeing the Christians refuse to strike their flag, charged 
them with great fury, and on the first onset killed three of their 
men, and wounded every one of the rest ; Vincent received a 
shot of an arrow. The Christians were soon obliged' to surrender. 
The first thing the Mahometans did was to cut the captain in 
pieces because he had not struck at the first summons, and in 
the combat had killed one of their men and four or five slaves. 
The re<it they put in chains ; and continued seven or eight days 
longer on that coast, comimitting several other piracies, but 
sparing the lives of those who made no resistance. When they 
had got a sufficient booty they sailed for Barbary. Upon land- 
ing they drew up an act of their seizure, in which they falsely 
declared that Vincent and his companions had been taken on 
board of a Spanish vessel, that the French consul might not 
challenge them. Then they gave to every slave a pair of loose 
breeches, a linen jerkin, and a bonnet. In this garb they were 
led five or six times through the city of Tunis to be shown ; 
after which they were brought back to their vessel, where the 
merchants came to see them, as men do at the sale of a horse 
or an ox. They examined who could eat well, felt their sides, 
looked at their teeth to see who were of scorbutic habits of 
body, consequently unlikely for very long life; they probed 
their w^ounds, and made them walk and run in all paces, lift up 
burdens, and wrestle, to judge of their strength. Vincent waa 



1 



July 19-1 8t. vincent, c. 236 

bought by a fisherman, who, finding that he could not bear the 
sea, soon sold him again to an old physician, a«great chemist 
and extractor of essences, who had spent fifty years in search oi 
the pretended philosopher's stone. He was humane, and loved 
Vincent exceedingly ; but gave him long lectures on his al- 
chemy, and on the Mahometan law, to which he used his utmost 
efforts to bring him over ; promising on that condition to leave 
him all his riches, and to communicate to him, what he valued 
much more than his estate, all the secrets of his pretended sci- 
ence. Vincent feared the danger of his soul much more than 
all the hardships of his slavery, and most earnestly implored the 
divine assistance against it» recommending himself particularly 
to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, to which he ever 
after attributed his victory over this temptation. He lived with 
I this old man from September 1605 to August 1606, when, by 

j this physician's death, he fell to the share of a nephew of his 

* master, a true man-hater. By resignation to the divine will, 
and confidence in providence, he enjoyed a sweet repose in his 
own heart under all accidents, hardships and dangers ; and by 

^ assiduous devout meditation on the sufi'erings of Christ, learned 

to bear all his afflictions with comfort and joy, uniting himself 
in spirit with his Divine Redeemer, and studying to copy in 

I himself his lessons of perfect meekness, patience, silence and 

> charity. This new master sold him in a short time to a rene- 

gado Christian who came from Nice in Savoy. This man sent 
him to his temat or farm situate in a hot desert mountain. 

**' This apostate had three wives, of which one, who was a Turkish 

woman, went often to the field where Vincent was digging, and 
out of curiosity would ask him to sing the praises of God. He 

I used to sing to her with tears in his eyes, the psalm. Upon the 

* rivers of Babylon^ &c., the Salve Regina, and such like prayers. 
She was so much taken with our holy faith, and doubtless with 
the saintly deportment of the holy slave, that she never ceased 
repeating to her husband, that he had basely abandoned the 
only time religion, till, like another Caiphas, or ass of Balaam, 
without opening her own eyes to the faith, she made him enter 
into himself. Sincerely repeating of his apostacy, he agreed 
with Vincent to make their escape together. They crossed the 
Mediterranean sea in a small light boat which the least squall 



236 «T. VINCENT, C [JOI-T 19i 

of wind would overset ; and they landed safe at Aigues-Mortes, 
near Marseillts, on the 28th of June, 1607» and thence pro^ 
ceeded to Avignon. The apostate made his abjuration in the 
hands of the vice-legate, and the year following went with Vin- 
cent to Borne, and there entered himself a penitent in the austere 
convent of the Fate-Ben-Fratelli, who served the hospitals ac-, 
cording to the .rule of St. John of God. 

Vincent received great comfort at the sight of a place most 
venerable for its pre-eminence in the church, which has been 
watered with the blood of so many martyrs, and is honoured 
with the tombs of the two great apostles SS. Peter and Paul and 
many other saints. He was moved to tears at the remembrance 
of their zeal, fortitude, humility, and charity, and often devoutly 
visited their monuments, praying earnestly that he might be so 
happy as to walk in their steps, and imitate their virtues. 
After a short stay at Rome, to satisfy his devotion, he returned 
to Paris, and took up his quarters in the suburb of St Ger- 
main's. There lodged in the same house a gentleman, the judge 
of a village near Bourdeaux, who happened to be robbed of four 
hundred crowns. He charged Vincent with the theft, thinking 
it could be nobody else ; and in this persuasion he spoke against 
him with the greatest virulence among all his friendp, and 
wherever he went Vincent calmly denied the fact, saying, 
" God knows the truth." He bore the slander six years, with- 
out making any other defence, or using harsh wdrds or com- 
plaints, till the true thief being taken up at Bourdeaux on 
another account, to appease his own conscience and clear the 
innocent he sent for this judge, and confessed to him the crime. 
St Vincent related this in a spiritual conference with his 
priests, but as of a third person ; to show that patience, 
humble silence, and resignation are generally the best de- 
fence of our innocence, and always the happiest means of 
sanctifying our souls under slanders and persecution ; and we 
may be assured that providence will in its proper time justify 
us, if expedient. 

At Paris Vincent became acquainted with the holy priest 
Monsieur de Berulle, who was afterwards cardinal, and at that 
time was taken up in founding ihe congregation of the French 
oratory. A saint readily discovei;s a soul in which the spirit of 



•^i:i.Y 19. J «T. VINCENT, c. 237 

God reigns. B^ruUe conceived a great esteem for St. Vincent 
from his first eoi^versation with him ; and to engage him in the 
service of his neighbour, he prevailed with him first to serve 
HS curate of the parish of Clichi, a small village near Paris ; 
and soon after to quit that employ, to take upon him the cliarge 
of preceptor to the children of Emmanuol de Gondy, count of 
Joignj, general of the galleys of France. His lady, Frances 
of Silly, a person of singular piety, was so taken with the 
sanctity of Vincent, that shi^ chose him for her spiritual direc- 
tor and confessor. In the yew^ 161 6, whilst the CJountess of 
Joigny was at a country seat at Folleville, in the diocess of 
Amiens, Vincent was sent for to the village of Gannes, two 
leagues from Folleville, to hear the confession of a countryman 
who lay dangerously ilL The zealous priest<, by carefully exa- 
mining his penitent, found it necessary to advise him to make 
a general confession, with Which the other joyfully complied. 
The penitent by this m'eans discovered that all his former con- 
fessions had been sacrile^ous for want of a due examination of 
his conscience ; and afterwards, bathed in tears, he declared 
aloud, in transports of joy before many persons, and the Coun- 
tess of Joigny herself, that he should have been eternally lost 
if he had not spoken to Vincent. The pious lady was struck 
with dread and horror to hear of such past sacrileges, and to 
consider the imminent danger of being damned in which that 
poor soul had been ; and she trembled lest some others among 
her vassals might have the misfortune to be in the like case. 
Far from the criminal illusion of pride by which some masters 
and mistresses seem persuaded that they owe no care, attention, 
or provision to those whose whole life is employed only to giv^ 
them the fruit of their sweat and labours ; she was sensible 
from the principles both of nature and religion, that masters or 
lords lie under strict ties of justice and charity towards all com- 
mitted to their care ; and that they are bound, in the first place, 
as far as it lies in their power, to see them provided with the 
necessary spiritual helps for their salvation. But to wave the 
obligation, what Christian heart can pretend to the bowels of 
charity, and be insensible at the dangers of such persons ? The 
virtuous countess felt in her ot« breast the strongest alarms for 
ao many poor souls, which she called her own by mnny titles, 
• VOL. vn. Q 



^38 rr- vincbnt, c [July 19 

She therefore untreated Vincent to preach in the church of Fol- 
leviUe, on the feast of the conversion of St Paul, in 1617, 
and fully to instruct the people in the great duty of repentance 
and confession of sins. He did so ; and such crowds flocked to 
him to make general confessions that he was obliged to call in 
the Jesuits of Amiens to his assistance. The congregation ot 
the mission dates its first institution from this time, and in 
thanksgiving for it, keeps the 25th of January with great so- 
lemnity. 

By the advice of Monsieur de BeruUe, St. Vincent left the 
house of the countess in 1617> to employ his taleitts among the 
common people in the villages of Bresse, where he heard they 
stood in great need of instruction. He prevailed upon five 
other zealous priests to bear him company, and with them 
fovmed a little community in the parish of Chatillon in that 
province. He there converted by his sermons the Count of 
Bougemont and many others from their scandalous unchristian 
Hves to a state of eminent penance and fervour, and in a short 
time changed the whole face of the country.(l) The good 
countess, his patroness, was infinitely pleased with his success, 
and gave him sixteen thousand livres to found a perpetual mis- 
sion among the common people in the place and manner he 
should think fit. But she could not be easy herself whilst she 
was deprived of his direction and advice ; she therefore em- 
ployed Monsieur de Berulle, and her brother-in-law. Cardinal 
de Bet2s, to prevail with him to come to her, and extorted from 
him a promise that he would never abandon the direction of 
her conscience so long as she lived, and that he would assist 
her at her death* But being extremely desirous that others, 
especially those who were particularly entitled to her care and 
attention^ should want noUiing that could contribute to their 
sanctification and salvation, she induced her husband to concur 
with her in establishing a. company of able and zealous mis- 
sionaries, who should be employed in assisting their vassals and 
farmers. This project they proposed to their brother, John 
Francis of Gondi, the first archbishop of Paris, and he gave 
the college of Bons Enfans for the reception of the new com- 
munity. All things being agreed on, St Vincent took posses 

(1) CoDfict, t- L b. 1, pp. 66, 71. 



Jur.Y 19.] ST. VINCENT, C. 2S3 

sion of this house in April, 1625. The count and countess gave 
forty thousand French livres to begin the foundation. 

St. Vincent attended the countess till her pious death, which 
happened on the 23d of June the same year ; after which he 
joined his Congregation. He drew up for it certain rules or 
constitutions, which wexe approved by Pope Urban VIII. in 
1632. King Lewis XHL confirmed the establishment by let- 
ters patent^ whieh he granted in May the same year ; and, in 
l633y the regular canons of St. Victor gave to this new insti- 
tute the prioiy of St. Lazarus, which being a spacious building 
was made the chief house of the Congregation, and from it the 
Fathers of the Mission were often called Lazarites or Lazarians. 
They are not religious men, but a Congregation of secular 
priests, who after two years' probation make four simple vows, 
of poverty, chastity, obedience, and stability. They devote 
themselves to labour, in the first place, in sanctifying tiieir own 
souls by the particular holy exercises prescribed in their insti- 
tute; secondly, in the conversion of sinners to God; and 
thirdly, in training up clergymen for the ministry of the altar 
and. the care of souls. To attain the first end, their rule pre- 
scribes them an hour's meditation every morning, self-exami- 
nation thrice every day, spiritual conferences every week, a 
yearly retreat of eight days, and silence except in the hours 
aflowed for conversation. To comply with the second obliga- 
tion, they are employed eight months every year in missions 
among the country people, staying three or four weeks in each 
)lace which they visit, every day giving catechism, making 
familiar sermons, hearing confessions, reconciling diiferences, 
and performing all other works of charity. To correspond with 
the third end which St. Vincent proposed to himself, some of 
this Congregation undertake the direction of seminaries, and 
admit ecclesiastics or others to make retreats of eight or ten 
days with them, to whom they prescribe suitable exercises ; and 
for these purposes excellent rules are laid down by the founder. 
Pope Alexander VII., in 1662, enjoined by a brief, that a]l 
persons who receive holy orders in Rome, or in the six sufira- 
gan bidioprios, shall first make a retreat of ten days under the 
direoticm of. the fathers of this Congregation, under pain of 
nusponaion. St. Vincent settled his institute also in f.^e semi- 



24t/ nr. VINCENT, c. \j3xJiiT 19, 

narjr of St Charles in Paris, and lived to see twenty-five houses 
of it founded in France, Piedmont, Poland, and other places. 

This foundation,' though so extensive and heneficial, could 
not satisfy the zeal of this apostolic man. He hy every other 
means studied to procure the relief of others under all neces- 
sities, whether spiritual or corporal For this purpose he esta 
blished many other confraternities, as that called Of Charity, to 
Mtend all poor sick persons in each parish ; which institute he 
began in Bresse, and propagated in other places where he made 
any missions ; one called Of the Dames of the Cross, for the 
education of young girls ; another of Dames to serve the sick 
in great hospitals, as in that of Hotel Dieu in Paris. He pro- 
cared and directed the foundation of several great hospitals, as 
in PSris that of foundlings, or those children who, for want of 
such ^a provjsion, are exposed to the utmost distress, or to the 
baroarity of unnatural parents ; also that of poor old men ; at 
Marseilles the stately hospital for the galley-slaves, who, when 
sick, are there abundantly furnished with every help both cor- 
poral and spirituaL All these establishments he settled under 
excellent regulations, and supplied with large sums of money 
to defray all necessary expenses. He instituted a particu- 
lar plan of spiritual exercises for those who are about to 
receive holy orders; and others for those who desire to 
make general confessions, or to deliberate upon the choice 
of a state of life. He also appointed regular ecdesiasticai 
conferences, on the duties of the clerical state, &c. It must 
appear almost incredible that so many and so great things could 
have been effected by one man, and a man who had no advan- 
tages from birth, fortune, or any shining qualities which the 
world admires and esteems. But our surprise would be much 
greater if we could enter into a detail of his wonderful actions, 
and the infinite advantages which he procured others. During 
the wars in Lorrain, being informed of the miseries to which 
these provinces were reduced, he collected charities among 
pious persons at Paiis, which were sent thither^ to the amount 
of fifteen or sixteen hundred thousand livres^ says Abelly ; 
Tfay, as Collet proves from authentic vouchers, of two millions, 
that is, according to the value of money at that time, oonsi- 
4f^ri^b]y above one hundred thousand pounds sterling 5 aAd h^ 



Jui.t 19.J gT.viNcaBNT, e. 5^*1 

aid the like on other occasions. He assisted King Lewis XIlL 
at his death, and by his holy advice and exhortations that mo- 
narch expu^d in perfect sentiments of piety and resignation. 
Our saint was in the highest favour with the queen regent, 
Anne of Austria, who nominated him a member of the young 
king's Council of Conscience, and consulted him in aU ecclesi- 
astical affairs, and in the collation of benefices ; which office he 
discharged ten years. 

Amidst so many and so great employs his soul seemed ahvays 
united to God; in the most distracting affairs it kept, as it 
were, an eye always <^n to him, in order to converse conti- 
nually with him. This constant attention to him he often re- 
newed, and always when the clock struck, by making the sign 
of the cross (at least secretly with his thumb upon bis breast) 
tvith an act of divine love. Under all crosses, disappointments, 
and slanders, he always preserved a perfect serenity and even- 
ness of mind, which it did not seem in the power of the whole 
world to disturb ; for he considered all events only with a view 
to the divine will, and with an entire resignation to it, having 
no other desire but that God should be glorified in all things. 
Whether this was to be done by his own disgrace and suffeiings, 
©r by whatever other means it pleased the divine majesty, hd 
equally rejoiced. Not that he fell into the pretended apathy or 
insensibility of the proud Stoics, or into the unpious indifference 
of the false Mystics, afterwards called Quietists, fiian which 
nothing is more contrary to true piety, which is always tender, 
afiectionate, and most sensible to all the interests of charity and 
religion. This was the character of our saint, who regarded 
the afflictions of all others as his own, sighed continually with 
St. Paul after that state of glory in which he should be united 
inseparably to his God, and poured forth his soul before him 
with tears over his own and others* spiritual miseries. Having 
his hope fixed as a firm anchor in God, by an humble reliance 
en tlie divine mercy and goodness^ he seemed raised above the 
leach of the malice of creatures, or the frowns of the world ; 
and he enjoyed a trakquillity within his breast which no storms 
were able to ruffle or disturb. So perfect was the mastery which 
ae had gained over his passions, that his meekness and patience 
seemed unalterable, whatever provocations be mot with. He 



•242 STk viNCENX C [Jdly igb 

was never moved by Afironts, unless to rejoice secreUy under 
them, because he was sure to find in them a hidden treasure ot 
grace, and an opportunity of vanquishing himself. This ib the 
fruit of the victory which perfect virtue gains over selfJove 
and it is a more perfect sacrifice to God, a surer test of sincere 
virtue, a more heroic victory, and a more glorious triumph 
of the soul to bear a slander, an injurious suspicion, or an 
unjust insult, in silence and patience, th^ the most shining 
*" exterior act of virtue ; a language often repeated, but little 
understood or practised among Christians. Perfect self-denial 
the most profound humility, and an eminent spirit of prayer 
were the means by which St. Vincent attained to this degree of 
perfection : and he most earnestly recommended the same to his 
disciples. Humility he would have them to make the basis of 
his Congregation, and it was the lesson which he never ceased 
to repeat to them, that they ought to study sincerely to conceal 
even their natural talents. When two persons of extraordinary 
learning and abilities once presented themselves, desiring to be 
admitted into his Congregation, he gave them both ^ repulse, 
tilling them, ^* Your abilities raise you above our low state. 
Yoir talents may be of good service in some other place. As 
for us, our highest ambition is to instruct the ignorant, to bring 
sinners to a spirit of penance, and to plant the gospel-spirit of 
charity, humility, meekness, and simplicity in the hearts of all 
Christians." . He laid it down also as a rule of humility, that, 
if possible, a man ought never to speak of himself or his own 
concerns, such discourse usually proceeding from, and nourish- 
ing in the heart, pride and self-love. This inbdeed is a ruld 
prescribed by Confucius, Aristotle, Catp, Pliny, and other phv- 
4dsophers i because, say they, for any one to boast of himself is 
always the most intolerable and barefaced pride, and modesty 
in such discourse will be suspected of secret vanity. Egotism, 
or the itch of speaking always of a man's self, shows he is in^ 
toxicated with the poison of self-love, refers every thing to him 
self, and is his own centre, than which scarce anything can be 
more odious and ofiensive to others. But Christian humility 
carries this maxim., higher, teaching us to love a hidden lifoi 
and to lie concealed and buried, as being in ourselves nothing 
ness ^ud sin. 



3VLY 19.] . ST. VIWCETf T, C. 243 

St. Vincent exerted his zeal against the novelties concerning 
the article of divine grace which sprang up in his time. Michael 
Bains^ doctor and professor of divinity at Lonvain, advanced a 
•ew doctrine concerning the grace conferred on man in the two 
states before and after Adam's fall, and some other speculative 
points; and Pope Pius Y., in 16679 condemned seventy^six 
propositions under his name. Some of these, Bains confessed 
he had taught^ and these he solemnly revoked and sincerely 
cmidemned with all the rest in 1580, in presence of F. Francis 
Toletus, afterwards cardinal, whom Gregory XIIL had sent 
for that very purpose to Louvain. Gomelius Jacsenius and 
John Yei^r, commonly isalled Abb6 de St. Cyran, contracted a 
doee friendship together during their studies, firist at Louvain, 
afterwards at Paris, and concerted a plan of a new system of 
doctrine, concerning divine grace, founded, in part, upon some 
of the condemned errors of Baius. This system Jansenius, by 
his friend's advice, endeavoured to establish in a book, which 
from St. Austin, the great doctor of grace, "he entitled, Augus- 
tinus. After having been bishop of Ipres from 1636 to 1638, 
he died of the pestilence, having never pubUshed his book, in 
the close of which he inserted a declaration that he submitted 
his work to the judgment of the Church.* Fromond, another 

• This hfHik of Jansenius was condemned by Urban VIII. in 1641 , and 
in 1653 Innocent X. censured five propositions to which the errors con- 
tained in this book were principally rednced. Alexander VII. in 1656 
confirmed these decrees, and in 1665 approved the formulary proposed by 
the French clergy for the manner of receiving and subscribing them. 
Paschasins Quenel, a French oratorian, published in 1671 his book of 
MonU Beflections on the Qospels, which he afterwards augmented, and 
added like reflections on the rest of the New Testament, which work he 
pripted complete in 1693 and 1694. In it he craftily insinuated thg 
errors of Jansenius, and a contempt of the censures of the church. Cle- 
ment XI. condemned this book in 1706; and in 1713, bf the constitutiool 
tJnigenitus, censured one hundred and one propositions, extracted out of 
it. These decrees were all received and promulgated by the clergy of 
Ihrance, and registered in the parUament of that kingdom, that they 
might receive the force of a law of the state ; and they are adopted by 
the whole Catholic Church, as Cardinal Bissy, Languet, and other Frencli 
prelates have clearly demonstrated. 

The Jansenian heresy is downright Fredeslinarianism, than which no 
doctrine can be imagined more monstrous and absurd. The principal 
errors couched in the doctrine of Jansenists are, that God sometimes re- 
fuses, even to the just, sufficient grace to comply with his precepts; that 
the grace which God affords man since the fall of Adam, is such that if 
concupiscence be stronger, it carnot nroduce its effect • but if the grace 



244 «T. TiNcrKNT, c. [Jolt 19. 

Louvain divine, an abler scholar, and a more polite writer^ 
polished the style of this book, and put it in the press^lS 
. Verger became director of the nmis of Port-Bojal, had read 
some ancient writers on the books of derotion, and wrote wi4t 
ease.(2) But his ycry works on sabjeets of piety, however 
neatly written, betray the author's excessive presumption and 
forbidding self-sufficiency. He became the most strenuous ad- 
Tocate of Jansenism, and was detained ten years prisoner in 
the castle of Yincennes. He died soon afler he had recovered 
his liberty, in 1643. This man hifcd by his reputation gained 
the esteem of St. Vincent ; but the saint hearing him one day 
advance his errors, and add that the Church had failed for five 
or six hundred years past, he was struck with horror, and from 
that moment renounced the friendship of so dangerous a person. 
When these errors were afterwards more publicly spread abroad, 

(1) See F. Honore Addit. sor les Obtenr. p. 24J, Ac. Languet ep 
Pastor, &c. 

(2) Honore, ibid. pp. 245, 258, Ac. 

be more powerful than the qpposite concupiicence in the soul, or rela^ 
fcively to it yictorious by a neeessitatimf influence, that then it cannot be 
resisted, rjg'ected, or hindered ; and that Christ by his death paid indeed 
a price suffldent for the redemption of all men, and offered it to purchase 
some weak insufUcient graces for rn>robate souls, but not to procure 
thera means truly applicabie, and sufficient for tiiehr salvation ; whidi is 
really to confine the death of Christ to the elect, and to deprive the re- 
probate of sufficient means to attain to salvation. The mam.spring or 
hinge of this system is, that the grace which inclines man's will to super, 
natural virtue, since tiie ML of Adam, consists in a moral pleasurable 
motion or a delectation infused into the soul inclining her to virtue, as 
concupiscence carries her to vice; and that the power of delectation, 
whether of virtue or vice, which is stronger, draws the will by an in- 
evitable necessity, as it were by its own weight. 

The equivocations by which jsome advocates of these erroneous prin. 
dples have endeavoured to disguise or soften their harshness, only dis* 
cover their IJoar of the light. A certain modem philosopher is more 
daring, who, in spite not only of revelation, which he disclaims, but also 
of reason and experience, openly denies all free-will or election in human 
actions, pretending to apply this system of a two-fold delectation to every 
natural operation of the will. (See Hume's Essay on Free- Will.) Those, 
who obstinately oppose the decrees of the church in these disputes, with- 
out adopting any heretical principle condemned as such by the diurch, 
but found their ui\just exceptions in some points of discipline, or any 
f ther weak pretences, cannot be charged with heresy : nevertheless, only 
mvincible ignorance can exempt them from the guilt of disobedience, 
though tbey should not proceed to a schismaticu separation fai com- 
munion. 



JCJ-Y 19.] ST. VINCENT, C 245 

he strenuously exerted himself against them ; on which account 
Gerberon, the Jansenistical historian, makes him the butt of 
his rancour and spleen ; but general and vague invectives of the 
enemies to truth are the commendation of his piety and zeal.(l) 
Our saint's efforts to destroy that heresy, says Abelly, never 
made him approve a loose morality, which on all occasions he 
no less avoided and abhorred than the errors of the Jansenists. 
He was particularly careful in insisting on all the conditions of 
true repentance to render it sincere and perfect ; for want of 
which he used to say witli St Ambrose, that some pretended 
penitents are rendered more criminal by their sacrilegious by- 
|)ocrisy in the abuse of so great a sacrament, than they were by 
all their former sins. 

In the year 1658 St. Vincent assembled the members of his 
Congregation at St. Lazarus, and gave to every one a small 
book of rules which he had compiled. At the same time he 
made a pathetic exhortation, to enforce the most exact and reli- 
gious observance of them. This Congregation was again ap- 
proved and confirmed by Alexander Vil. and Clement X. St. 
Vincent was chosen by St Francb of Sales director of his nuns 
x>f the Visitation that were established at Paris. The robust 
constitution of the zealous servant of Grod was impaired by his 
uninterrupted fatigues and austerities. In the eightieth year of 
his age He was seized with a periodical fever, and with violent 
night sweats. After passing the night almost without sleep, and 
in an agony of pain, he never failed to rise at four in the morn- 
ing, to spend three hours in prayer, to say mass every day (ex- 
cept on the three first days of Ids annual retreat, according to 
the custom he had established), and to exert, as usual, his in- 
defatigable zeal in the exercises of charily and religion. He 
even redoubled his diligence in giving his last instructions to 
his spiritual children ; and recited every day after mass the 
prayers of the Church for persons in their agony, with the re- 
commendation of the soul, and other preparatory acta for his 
last hour Alexander VIL, in consideration of the extreme 
weakness to which his health was reduced, sent him a brief to 
dispense him from reciting his breviary ; but befoire it arrived 

(l) See CoUet'8 life of St. Vincent, I. 3, 1 1, p. 260, and AbeUy, 1. a; 
ch. I2. 



tbe seirant of Gk^d had finished the course of his labours. Hav- 
ing received the last sacraments and given his last advice, he 
calmly expired in his chair, on the 27th of S^9tember, 1660, 
being fourscore and five years old. He was buried in the church 
rf St. Lazarus in Paris, with an extraordinary concourse and 
pomp. An account of several predictions of this servant o^ 
Gk)d, and some miraculous cures performed by him whilst aliTe. 
may be read in his life written by Collet,(l) with a great num- 
ber of miracles wrought through his intercession after his death 
at Paris, Anglers, Sens, in Italy, &c Mr. Bonnet, superior 
of the seminary at Chartres, afterwards general of the Congre- 
gation, by imploring this sainf s intercession, was healed in- 
stantaneously of an inveterate entire rupture, called by the 
physicians enieroepiph^elkf* which had been declared by the 
ablest surgeons absolutely incurable; this miracle was approved 
by Cardinal NoaiUes. Several like cures of fevers, hemorrhi^es, 
palsies, dysenteries, and other distempers were juri^cally 
proved. A girl eight years old, both dumb and kme, was 
cured by a second Novena or nine days' devotion performed for 
her by her mother in honour of St Yinoent His body was 
vi^ted by Cardinal Noailles in presence of many witnesses, in 
1712, and found entire and firwh, «nd the linen cloths in the 
sbine condition as if they were new. The tomb was then shut 
up again. This ceremony is usually performed before the bea- 
tHIcation of a servant of Ood, though the incormption of the 
body by itself is not regarded as a miraculous proof at Bome or 
elsewhere, as OoUet remarks.(2) After the ordinary rigorous 
examinations of the conduct, heroic virtues, and miracles of 
this saint at Rome, Pope Benedict XIII. performed with great 
solemnity the ceremony of his beatification in 1729* Upon tiie 
publieation of the brief thereof the archbishop of Paris caused 
the grave to be again opened. The lady marechale of Noailles, 
tin marshal her son, and many other persons were present ; but 
the fiesh on the legs and head appeared corrupted, which alter- 
ation from the state in whidi it was found twenty-seven years 

a) I^ d. (2^ T. 2, p. 516. 

* This can«!8t8 in a prolapee both of the vat and the omentam or caol 



JCT.T 19*} ST. ABSEKItJS, A. 24T 

before, was atbilmted to a flood of witter which twelve vean 
before this had overawed that ranlt. Miracles oontinoed fre^^ 
quently to be wrought by the relics and inyocation of St. Vin- 
Qent. A Benedictin mm at Montmirel, afflicted with a violent 
fever, retention of urine, ulcers, and other disorders, her body 
being swelled to an enormous size, and having been a long time 
paraiytie, was perfectly cured all at once by a relic of St. Vincent 
applied to her by Monseignear Joseph Langaet, then bishop 
of Soissons. Francis Richer, in Paris, was healed iii a no less 
miraculous manner. Miss Louisa Elizabeth Saokville, an Eng- 
lish young lady at Paris, was cured of a paisy by performing a 
novena tft the tomb of St. Yinc^t ; which miracle was attested 
in the -strongest manner, among pthers, by Mrs. Hayes, a Pro- 
testant gentlewoman, with whom she lodged. Miss Sackville 
became nfterwards a nun in the French abbey called of the 
Holy Sacrament, in Paris, lived ten years without any return 
of her former disorder, and died in 1742. St. Vincent was 
canonized in 1737 by Pope Clement XII. 

This saint could not display his zeal more to the advantage of 
his neighbour than by awaking 'Christians from the spiritual 
lethargy in which so many live. He set before their eyes the 
grievous disorder of Inkewarmness in the divine service, and 
explained to them, like another Baptist, the necessity and obli- 
gations of sincere repentance ; foi^ those certainly can never be 
entitled to the divine favour who live in an ambiguous, divide, 
and distracted state of sinning and repenting $ of being hea- 
thens and Christians by turns. StUl more dreadful is the state 
jyf those who live in habitual sin, yet are insensible of their dan- 
ger, and frightful miseries! Into what extravagance, folly, 
spiritual blindness, and sometimes incredulity, do men's pas- 
sions of^n plunge them ! To what a degree of madness and 
stupidity do men of the finest natural parts sink, when aban- 
doned by God I or rather when they themselves abandon Grod, 
and that Hght which he has set up in the world ! Let us by 
tears and prayers implore the divine mercy in favour of all 
blind sinners. 

ST. ARSENIUS, ANCHORET. 
He %vas a Roman by birth, and was related to senators. "He 



fi2*iJ ST. AR8EKIU8, A. [J ULY 19. 

had been trained up in learning and piety, was siucerelj virtu- 
oufly and well skilled, not only in the holy scriptui^s, but also 
in the profane sciences, and in the Latin and Greek languages 
and literature* He was in deacon's orders, and led a retired 
life at home with his sbter in Borne, when the emperor Theo- 
dosius the Great wanted a person to whom he might intrust the 
care of his children, and desired the emperor Gratian to apply 
for that purpose to the bishop of Bom^ who recommended Ar- 
senius. Gratian sent him to Constantinople, where he was 
kindly received by Theodosius, who advanced him to the rank 
of a senator, with orders that he should be respected as the fa- 
ther of his children, whose tutor and preceptor he appointed 
him. No one in the court at the time wore richer apparel, had 
more sumptuous furniture, or was attended by a more numerous 
^rain of servants than Anmiius ; he was attended by no fewer 
than a thousand, all richly clad* Theodosius coming one day 
io see his children at their studies, found them sitting, whilst 
Arsenius talked to them standing. Being displeased thereat, he 
took from them for some time the marks of their dignity, and 
caused Arsenius to sit, and them to listen to him standing. 

Arsenius had always, a great inclination to a retired life, which 
the care of his employment and the incumbrances of a great for^ 
tune made him desire the more ardently ; for titles and honours 
were burthensome to him. At length, about the year 390, an 
opportunity offered itself. Arcadius having committed a con- 
siderable faulty Arsenius whipped him for it. The young 
prince, resenting the chastisement, grew the more obstinate. 
Arsenius laid hold of this occasion to execute the project he 
had long before formed of forsaking the world. The Lives 
of the Fathers, both in Bosweide and Cotelier, make no men- 
tion of this resentment of Arcadius, which circumstance is only 
related by Metaphrastes ; on which account it is omitted by 
Tillemont and others. It is most certain that retirement had 
long been the object of the sainf s most earnest wishes and de- 
sires ; but before he left the court, he for a long time begged by 
earnest prayer to know the will of Gx)d ; and one day making 
this request with great fervour, he heard a voice saying : « Ar- 
senius, flee the company of men, and thou shalt be saved.'' He 
o1>eyed the call of heaven without delay, and going on board a 



July 19.] ^t. aasenxos, a. 249 

vessel, sailed to Alexandria, and thence proceeded to the de-> 
sert of Scet4, where he embraced an anchoretical life. This 
happened about the year 394, he being in the fortieth year of 
his age, and having lived eleven years at the court There he 
renewed his prayers to Grod, begging to be instructed in the 
way of salvation, having no other desire than to make it his 
only study to please God in all things. Whilst he prayed thus 
he again heard a voice which said : ** Arsenius, jflee, hold thy 
peace, and be quiet; these are the principles of 8alvation,"(l) 
that is, the main things to be observed in order to be saved. Pur* 
suant to the repeated advice or injunction of fledng and avoid<* 
ing human conversation, he made choice of a very remote cell, 
and admitted very few visits even from his own brethren. 
When he went to the church, upwards of thirty miles distance 
from his habitation, he would place himself behind one of the 
•pillars, the better to prevent hb seeing or being seen by any one. 
Theodosius in great affliction for the loss of him, caused search 
to be made for him both by sea and land ; but being soon after 
called into the West to revenge the death of Valentinian XL 
and to extinguish the rebellion of Arbogastus his murderer, and 
Eugenius, he died of a dropsy at Milan in 396* Arcadius being 
left emperor of the East, advanced Bufih, who was the prefec* 
tus-pr8Btorio, and had been his flattering governor, to the rank 
of prime minister, committing to him the direction not only of 
his armies but also of the whole empire. He at the same time 
earnestly desired to call back to court his holy master Artjenius, 
that he * might be assisted by his wise apd faithful counsels. 
Being informed that he was in the desert of Scet^, he wrote to 
him, recommending himself to his prayers, begging his forgive- 
ness, and offering him the disposal of all the tribute of Egypt, 
that he might make a provision for the monasteries and the poor 
at his discretion ; but the saint had no other ambition on earth 
than to be allowed the liberty of enjoying his soHtude, that he 
might employ his time in bewailing his sins, and in prepai*ing 
his soul for eternity. He therefore answered the emperor's 
message only by word of mouth, saying, " God grant us all the 
pardon of our sins ; as to the distril]^tion of the money, I um 

(1) "Fuge, tace, quiesce; haec sunt principia salutis." Uofcweide. 
Cotelier, et St. Theod. Stud. Vit. S. Arsen. c. 1, n, 7. 



25U aT. ABBKVxnsy a. [Jcjlt 19. 

not capable of such a charge, being already dead to the world.'' 
When he ^rst presented himself to the ancients or superiors of 
the monks of Soetd, and begged to be allowed to fierve God 
nnder their direction, thej recommended him to the care of St« 
John the Dwarf^ who wl^n the rest in the evening sat down to 
take their repast^ took his place among them, and left Arsenios 
standing in the middle without taking notice of him. Such a 
reception was a severe trial to a courtier \ but was followed bj 
another much rougher ; for, in the middle of the repast, 3^ 
John took a loaf or portion of bread, and threw it on the ground 
before him« bidding him with an air of indifference to eat if he 
would. Arsenios cheerfully fell on the ground, and in that 
posture took his meal. St John was so satisfied with his be> 
haviour in this single instance, that he required no further trial 
foir his admission, and said to his brethren : *' Betum to your 
cells with the blessing of the Lord. Fray for us. This persoL 
is fit fox a religious life." 

Arsenius after his retreat only distinguished himself among 
the anchorets by his greater humility and fervour. At first he 
used, williout perceiving it, to do certain things which he had 
practised in the woxid, whkdi seemed to savour of levity or im- 
mortification, as, for instance, to sit cross-legged, or laying one 
knee over another. The seniors were unwilling, through the 
great respect they bore him, to tell him of this in a public afr- 
sembly in which they were met to hold a spiritual conference 
together ; but abbot Femen or Faster made use of this strata- 
gem : He agreed with another that he should put himself in that 
posture ; and then he rebuked him for his immodesty ; nor did 
the other offer any excuse. Arsenius perceived that the reproof 
was meant for him, and corrected himself of that custom. In 
other respects he appeared from the beginning an accomplished 
master in every exercise of virtue in that venerable company of 
saints. To punish himself for his seeming vanity at court, be- 
cause he had there gone more richly habited than others, his 
garments were always the meanest of all the monks in Scete. 
H^ employed himself on working-days till noon in making mats 
of palm-tree leaves ; and ^e always worked with a handkerchief 
in his bosom, to wipe off the tears which continually fell from 
his eyes. He never changed the water in which he moistened 



tToiiT 19, J ST. AKSCNlDd, Ji^ 251 

his palm-tree leaves, but only poured in fresh water upon it as 
It wasted. When some asked him one day why he did not cast 
away the cormpted water, he answered: ^' I ought to be 
punished by this ill smell for the sensuality with which I for- 
merly used perfumes when I lived in the world." To satisfy 
for former superfluities he lived in the most universal poverty, 
so that in a violent fit of illness having occasion for a small sum 
to procure him some little necessaries, he was obliged to receive 
it in alms, whereupon he gave God thanks for being made wor- 
thy to be thus reduced to the necessity of asking alms in his 
naihe. The distemper continued so long upon him that the 
priest of this desert of Scete caused him to be carried to hie 
apartment cofntiguous to the church, and laid him on a little bed 
made of the skins of beasts, with a pillow under his head. One 
of the monks coming to see him, was much scandalized at his 
lying so easy, and said: '' Is this the abbot ArseniusP' The 
priest took Mm aside, and asked him what his employment had 
been in the village before he was a monk ? The old man 
answered, '' I was a shepherd, and lived with much pains and 
difficulty.'' Then the priest said : *' Do you see this abbot Ar- 
senius ? when he was in the world he was the father of the em- 
perors ; he had a thousand slaves clothed in silk, with bracelets 
and girdles of gold, and he slept on the softest and richest beds. 
Yon who were a shepherd, did not find in the world the ease 
which you now enjoy." The old man, moved by these words, 
fell down, and said s *' Pardon me, father, I have sinned ; he is 
in the true way of humiliation ;" and he went away exceedingly 
edified. Arsenius in his sickness wanting a linen garment, ac- 
cepted something given him in charity to buy one, saying : ** I 
return thanks to thee, O Lord, for thy grace and mercy in per- 
mitting me to receive alms in thy name. One of the emperor^s 
officers, at another time, brought him the will of a senator, his 
rehition, who was lately dead and had left him his heir. Tlie 
«aiat took the will, and would have torn it to pieces^ but the 
officer three himself at his feet, and begged him not to tear it, 
saying such an accident would expose him to be tried for his 
life. St. Arsenius, however, refused the <^^tate, saying, '^ I 
died before him, and cannot be made his heu ' , 

Though no one knew the saint's fasts, they must have bees 



252 ST. ARSENIUS, A. J[JX'x,r 19, 

excessive, as the measure of corn, called thallin,* sent hini for 
ike year^ was exoe^inglj small ; this, however, he maottged so 
well as not only to make it suffice for himself, but also to im- 
part some of it to his disciples when they came to visit him. 
When new fruit was brought him he just tasted it, and gave 
thanks to Grod ; but he took so little as to show he did it only 
to avoid the vanity of singularity. Great abstinence* makes 
little sleep to suffice nature. Accordingly, St. Arsenius often 
passed the whole night in watohing and prayer, as we learn 
from his disciple Daniel. At other times, having watched a 
considerable part of the nigkt, when nature could hold out no 
longer, he would allow himself a short repose, which he took 
sitting, after which he resumed his wonted exercises. On Sa- 
.turday evenings, as the same disciple relates, it was his custom 
to go to prayers at sun-set, and continue in that exercise with 
his hands lifted up to heaven tall the sun beat on his face the 
next morning. His affection for the holy exercise of prayer, 
and his dread of the danger of vain-glory, gave him the strong-* 
est love of retirement. He had two disciples who lived near 
him, and did all his necessary business abroad. Their names | 

were Alexander and Zoilus ; he afterwards admitted a third | 

called DanieL All three were famous for their sanctity and 
discretion, and frequent mention is made of them in the histo* 
ries of the fathers of the deserts of Egypt St. Arsenius would 
seldom see strangers who came to visit him, sayings he would 
only use his eyes to behold the heavens. 

Theophilus, the patriarch of Alexandria, came one day in 
company with a certain great officer and others to visit him, 
and begged he would enteitain them on some spiritual subject 
for the good of their souls. The saint asked them whether 
they were disposed to comply with his directions ; and being 
answered in the affirmative, he replied : '* I entreat you, then. . 
that wherever you are informed of Arsenius's abode you would 
leave him to himself, and spare yourselves the trouble of com- 
ing after him.'' On another occasion, when the same patriarch 
sent to know if he would open his door to him if he came ? St. 

* A small Egyptian measure of vegetables made of palpi-tree leaves, as 
the word hnplies. See Cotelier, Mou Gr. t. 4, not. p. 748; aod I>u 
Qwngo, Gloss. Grajc, v. OaXX^v, 



July 19.] st. arsenius, a. 253 

Arsenius returned for answer, that if he came alone he would ; 
but that if he brought others with him he would seek out some 
other place, and would stay there no longer. Melania, a noble 
Boman lady, travelled as far as Egypt only to see Arsenius, 
and by means of Theophilus contrived to meet him as he was 
coming out of his celL She threw herself at his feet. The 
saint said to her : " A woman ought not to leave her house. 
You have crossed these great seas that you may be able to say 
at Rome that you have seen Arsenius, and raise in others a cu- 
riosity to come and see me." Not daring to lift up her eyes, 
as she lay on the ground, she begged he would always remem- 
ber her and pray for her. He answered : " I pray that the re- 
membrance of you may be blotted out of my mind " Melania 
returned to Alexandria in great grief at this answer; but 
Theophilus comforted her, saying ; " He only prayed that he 
might forget your person on account of your sex ; but os for 
your soul, doubt not but he will pray for you." 

The saint never visited his brethren, contenting himself with 
meeting them at spiritual conferences. The abbot Mark asked 
him one day, in the name of the hermits, why he so much 
shunned their conversation? The saint answered: ** God 
knoweth how dearly I love you all ; but I find I cannot be both 
with God and with men at the same time ; nor can I think of 
leaving God to converse with men." This disposition, how- 
ever, did not hinder him from giving short lessons of virtue to 
his brethren, and several of his apophthegms are recorded 
among those of the ancient fathers. He said often : " I have 
always something to repent of after having conversed with men ; 
but have never been sorry for having been silent " He had 
frequently in his mouth those words which St. Euthymius and 
St Bernard used also to repeat to themselves, to renew their 
fervour in the discharge of the obligations of their profession : 
'* Arsenius, why hast thou forsaken the world, and wherefore 
art thou come hither ?*' Being asked one day why he, being 
so well versed in the sciences, sought the instruction and advice 
of a certain monk who was an utter stranger to all human lite- 
rature ? he replied : " I am not unacquainted with the learning 
of the Greeks and Romans ; but I have not yet learned the al- 

VOL. VII. ^ 



254 ST. ARSENIUS, A. [JuLT 19- 

ph^bet of the science of the saints^ whereof this seemingly ig- 
norant person is master.'' 

Though the saint was excellently versed in sacred learning, 
and in the maxims and practice of perfect Christian virtue, he 
never would discourse on any point of scripture, and chose ra- 
ther to hear than to instruct or speak, making it the first part 
of his study to divest his mind of all secret opinion of himself, 
or confidence in his own abilities or learning ; and this he justly 
called the foundation of humility and all Christian virtue. 
Evagrius of Pontus, who had distinguished himself at Coi>^ 
stantinople by his learning, and had retired to Jerusalem, and 
thence into the deserts of Nitria, in 385, expressed his surprise 
to our saint, that many very learned men made no progress in 
virtue, whilst many Egyptians who knew not the very letters 
of the alphabet, arrived at a high degree of sublime contem- 
plation. To whom Arsenius made this answer : ^' We make no 
progress in virtue, because we dwell on that exterior learning 
which puffs up the mind ; but these illiterate Egyptians have a 
true sense of their own weakness, blindness, and insufficiency ; 
by which they are qualified to labour successfully in the pursuit 
of virtue." This saint used often to cry out to God with tears, 
in the most profound sentiment of humility ; " O Lord, forsake 
me not ; I have done nothing that can be acceptable in thy 
sight ; but for the sake of thy infinite mercy enable and assist 
me that I may now begin to serve thee faithfully." 

Nothing is so remarkable or so much spoken of by the an- 
cients concerning our saint, as the perpetual tears which flowed 
from his eyes almost without intermission. The source from 
which they sprung was the ardour with which he sighed after 
the glorious light of eternity, and the spirit of compunction 
with which he never ceased to bewail the sins of his life past, 
and the daily imperfections into which he felL But nothing 
was more amiable or sweet than these tears of devotion, as ap- 
peared in the venerable and majestic serenity of his counte- 
nance. His example was a proof of what the saints assure us 
concerning the sweetness of the tears of divine love. " When 
you hear tears named," says St. Chrysostom,(l) "do not re 

(1) St. Chrys. 1. de Virginit. t. 1, p. 321, ed. Ben. 



July 19.] st. ausenius, a. 255 

present to yourselves any thing grievous or terrible. They are 
sweeter than any carnal delights which the world can enjoy." 
St. Austin says to the same purpose :(1) " The tears of devo- 
tion are sweeter than the joys of theatres." St. John Climacus 
unfolds to us at large the incomparably advantages and holy 
pleasure of pious tears, and among other things writes thus :(2) 
" I am astonished when I consider the happiness of hdly com- 
punction ; and I wonder how carnal men can think.it affliction. 
It contains in it a pleasure and spiritual joy as wax does honey. 
God in an invisible manner visits and comforts the heart that 
is broken with this holy sorrow." Saint Arsenius being asked 
by a certain person what he must do to deliver himself from a 
troublesome temptation of impure thoughts? the saint gave him 
this answer : " What did the Midianites do ? They decked 
and adorned their daughters, and led them to the Israelites, 
though they used no violence upon them. Those among the 
servants of God who treated them with severity, and revenged 
their treachery and criminal designs with their blood, put a 
stop to their lewdness. Behave in the same manner with re- 
gard to your evil thoughts* Repulse them vigorously, and 
punish yourself for this attempt made in yourself towards a . 
revolt." 

This great saint lived in a continual remembrance and ap- 
prehension of death and the divine judgment. This made 
Theophilus, the busy patriarch of Alexandria, cry out when 
he lay on his death-bed in 312: "Happy Arsenius! who has 
liad this moment always before his eyes." His tears did not 
disfigure his countenance, which, from the inward peace and 
joy of his soul, mixed with sweet compunction ; and from his 
assiduous conversation with God, appeared to have something 
angelical or heavenly ; being equally venerable for a certain 
shining beauty, and an inexpressible air of majesty and meek- 
ness, in a fair and vigorous old age. The great and expe- 
rienced master in a contemplative life, St. John Climacus, pro- 
poses St. Arsenius as an accomplished model, and calls him a 
man equal to the angels, (3) saying that he shunned so rigo- 
rously the conversation of men, only that he might not lose 

ri) St. Aug. in Ps. 128. (2) St. John CUm. Grad. 7, p. 427. 

(3) Gr. 27, n. 65. 



256 ST, AR8ENIUS, A. * [Jui.Y 19. 

something more precious, which was God, who always filled 
his souL Our saint called it a capital and indispensable duty 
of a monk never to intermeddle in anj temporal concerns, and 
never to listen to any news of the world. He was tall and 
comely, but stooped a little in his old age ; had a graceful 
mien, his hair was all white, and his beard reached down to 
his girdle ; but the tears which he shed continually had worn 
away his eye-lashes. He was forty years old when he quitted 
the court, and he lived in the same austere manner from that 
time to the age of ninety-five ; he spent forty years in the de- 
sert of Scet^, except that about the year 395 he was obliged to 
leave it for a short time, on account of an irruption of the Ma- 
zici, a barbarous people of Lybia ; but the plunderers were no 
sooner returned home but he hastened back to his former soli- 
tude, where he remained till a second inroad of the same bar- 
barians, in which they massacred several hermits, compelled 
him entirely to forsake this abode about the year 434. He re- 
tired weeping to the rock of Troe, called also Petra, over 
against Memphis, and ten years after to Canopus, near Alex- 
andria ; but not being able to bear the neighbourhood of that 
great city, he staid here only three years ; then returned to 
Troe, where he died two years after. Knowing that his end 
was drawing near, he said to his disciples : '^ One only thing I 
beg of your charity, that when I am dead I may be remem- 
bered in the holy sacrifice. If in my life I have done any thing 
that is accepted by God, through his mercy, that I shall now 
find again." They were much grieved to hear him speak 
as if they were going soon to lose him. Upon which he said : 
" My hour is not yet come. I will acquaint you of it ; but 
you shall answer it at the tribunal of Christ, if you suffer any 
thing belonging to me to be kept as a relic." They said, with 
tears, (being solicitous for a funeral procession,) " What shall 
^e do alone, father ? for we know not how to bury the dead." 
The saint answered : " Tie a cord to my feet, and drag my 
carcass to the top of the mountain, and there leave it." His 
brethren seeing him weep in his agony, said to him : " Father, 
why do you weep ? are you, like others, afraid to die ?" The 
saint answered : '* I am seized with great fear ; nor has thia 
diread ever forsaken me from the time I first came into these 



JULT 19.] ST. SYMMACHUS, P. C. t267 

deserts.'' The saints all sexve God in fear and trembling, in 
the constant remembrance of his judgment ; but this is always 
accompanied with a sweet confidence in his infinite love and 
mercies. The Holy Ghost, indeed, so diversifies his gifts and 
graces as to make these dispositions more sensible in some than 
in others. Notwithstanding this fear, St. Arsenius expired in 
great peace, full of faith, and of that humble confidence which 
perfect charity inspires, about the year 449. He was ninety- 
five years old, of which he had spent fifty-five in the desert. 
Abbot Pemen having seen him expire, said, with tears : 
** Happy Arsenius ! who have wept for yourself so much here 
on earth ! Those who weep not here shall weep eternally here- 
after." This saint was looked upon by the most eminent monks 
of succeeding ages as a most illustrious pattern of their state. 
The great St. Euthymius endeavoured in all his exercises to 
form himself upon the model of his life, and to copy in him- 
self his humility, his meekness, and constant evenness of mind, 
his abstinences and watching, his compunction and tears, his 
love of retirement, his charity, discretion, fervour, assiduous 
application to prayer, and that greatness of soul which- ap- 
peared with so much lustre in all his actions. The name of 
St. Arsenius occurs in the Roman martyrology on the 19th of 
July. See his life written by St. Theodore the Studite ; and 
another in Metaphrastes ; also, the Lives of the Fathers of the 
Desert, in Rosweide and I^Andilly, t. 2. p. 183, collated with 
a very fair ancient MS., probably of Saint Bdmund's-bury, 
more ample than that published by Rosweide, in the hands of 
Mr. Martin, attomey-at-law, in Palgrave, in Suffolk. See 
likewise the Apophthegms of the Fathers in Coteliei^s Monu- 
menta Ecdesise Grsecas ; the collections and remarks of Pinius 
the BoUandist, JuL t. 4. p. 605, and F. Marian, Vies des P^rcs 
des D6serts d'Orient, t 3. p. 284 ad 339* 

ST. SYMMACHUS, POPE, C. 
He was a riitive of Sardinia, and archdeacon of the Roman 
church under Pope Anastasius, and succeeded him in the holy 
see in 498. Festus, the patrician, had been gained by Anas- 
tasius, emperor of Constantinople, and a protector of the Euty- 
cmans, to endeavour to procure from Pope Anastasius a confir- 



258 ST. sYMMAcnus, p. c. [July 19- 

mation of the Henoticon of Zeno, an imperial edict in favour of 
those heretics, as Theophanes relates. That pope dying, Festus, 
by bribes, gained several voices to raise Laurence, archpriest 
of St. Praxedes, to the pontificate. They were both ordained 
the same day. Syramachus in the basilic of Constantine, and 
Laurence in that of our lady. Theodoric, king of Italy, though 
an, Arian, ordered that election should take place which was 
first, and made by the greater number. By this rule Symma- 
chus was acknowledged lawful pope. He called a council at 
Rome of seventy-three bishops, and sixty-seven priests, which, 
to prevent cabals and factions in the elections of popes, ordained 
that if any one promised his vote to another, or deliberated in 
any assembly upon that subject, whilst the pope is living, he 
should be deposed and excommunicated; and that after the 
]x>pe's death that person should be duly elected who had a ma- 
jority of the voices of the clergy. Laurence subscribed these 
•lecrees the first among the priests,(l) and was afterwards made 
l)ishop of Nocera. Soon after, some of the clergy and senators, 
by the contrivance of Festus and Probinus, privately recalled 
Laurence to Rome, and renewed the schism, which is by many 
historians reckoned the first that happened in that church, 
though Novatian had attempted to form one. The schismatics 
accused Symmachus of many crimes, and king Theodoric com- 
manded a synod should be held at Rome upon that occasion. 
The bishops of Liguria, Emilia, and Venetia took Ravenna in 
their way to Rome, and strongly represented to the king, that 
the pope himself ought to call the council, which right he en- 
joyed both by the primacy of his see, derived from St. Peter, 
and by the authority of councils ; also, that there never had 
been an instance of his being subjected to the judgment of his 
inferiors.(2) The king showed them the pope's letters by which 
he agreed to and summoned the council. Indeed the pontifical 
says, that Symmachus assembled this counciL(3) 

The synod met at Rome in September 501, and declared 
Pope Symmachus acquitted of the accusations entered against 

(1) Cone. t. 4, p. 1286. 

(2) Ennod. Apol. p. 342, ed. Sirmoud. Item, 1. I, ep. 5. Cassidor. ia 
Chron. et Atiast. in Pontific. 

(SJ Cone. t. 4, p. 1287. 



JULT 19.] ST. SYMMACHUS, P. C 259 

him, condemning to be punished as schismatics any who should 
celebrate mass without his consent ; but pardoning those who 
had raised the schism, provided the/ gave satisfaction to the 
pope.(l) When this decree was carried into Gaul, all the 
bishops were alarmed at it; and thej charged St. Avitus, 
bishop of Yienne, to write about it in the name of them all. 
He addressed his letter to Faustus and Symmachus, two par- 
tricians who had both been consuls, complaining, that when the 
pope had been accused before the prince, the bishops, instead of 
opposing such an injustice, had taken upon them to judge him : 
" For," says he, " it is not easy to apprehend how the superior 
can be judged by his inferiors, especially the head of the church." 
However, he commends the council for bearing testimony to 
his innocence, and earnestly entreats the senate to maintain the 
honour of the church, and not to suffer the flocks to rise up 
against their pastors. The famous deacon Paschasius, a man 
eminent for his great alms-deeds and other good works, had the 
misfortune blindly to abet this schism to the latter end of his 
life ; for which St. Gregory the Great relates, upon the autho- 
rity of a certain revelation, (2) that he was detained in purga- 
tory after his death, but delivered by the prayers of St. G«r- 
manus, bishop of Capua. Geillier thinks that he repented only 
in his last moments ;(3) or, that simplicity of heart extenuated 
his sin. Paschasius wrote a learned book on the divinity of 
the Holy Ghost, though the two books on that subject^ which 
now bear his name, are the work of Faustus of Hiez. 

Pope Symmachus wrote to the emperor Anastasius declaring 
that he could not hold communion with him so long as he main- 
tained that of Acacius. That prince expected such a menace 
from the zeal of the pope, and therefore he had not written to 
him upon his promotion, according to custom. He also accused 
him of Manicheism, though Symmachus had banished the Ma- 
nichees out of Eome ; and he did not cease to thwart the pope, 
dreading his known zeal against his favourite sect of the Ace- 
phali. Symmachus composed an apology against this emperor, 

(1) Cone. t. 4, p. 1223. 

(2) Dial. 1. 4, c. 40. See Barren, ad an. 4d8, et Benedict XIV. L de 
Canoniz. Sanctor. 

(3) T. 15, ch. 23, p. 352. Vie de Paschaac. 



260 ST. MACKIWA, T. [JULY 19« 

in wbich he shows the dignit/ of the Christian priesthood.(l) 
He wrote to the oriental bishops, exhorting them to suffer ba- 
nishment and all persecutions rather than to betraj the divine 
truth.(2) King Thrasimund having banished manj Catholic 
African bishops into Sardinia, Pope Symmachus sent them an- 
nually both clothes and money ; and there is still extant among 
the works of Ennodius a letter which this pope sent to comfort 
them. He accompanied it with some relics of the martyrs SS. 
Nazarius and Bomanus. He redeemed many captives; and 
gave one hundred and seventy-nine pounds of silver in orna- 
ments to several churches in Eome ; and to the chapel of the 
holy cross, a gold cross of ten pounds weight, in which he en- 
closed a piece of the true cross. On a ciborium, that is, in the 
language of that time, a tabernacle, which he gave to St Paul's 
church, he caused to be engraved the figures of our Saviour and 
the twelve apostles. He instituted that the hymn of divine 
praise called the Gloria in Excelsis should be sung oa every 
Sunday, and on the festivals of martyrs, as the pontifical testi- 
fies. He filled the papal chair fifteen years and eight jnonths ; 
and died on the 19th of July, 514. See his letters^ the councils, 
and Anastasius Bibl. ; also F. Amort's Diss, on the cause of 
Pope Symmachus, printed at Bologna in 1758. 

ST. MACRINA, VIRGIN. 

She was the eldest of all the ten children of St Basil the elder, 
and St Emmelia ; and being trained up in excellent sentiments 
of piety, after the death of her father, consecrated her virginity 
by vow to God, and was a great assistant to her mother in edu- 
cating her younger brothers and sisters. St Basil the Great, 
St Peter of Sebaste, St. Gregory of Nyssa, and the rest, 
learned from her their early contempt of the world, dread of its 
dangers, and application to prayer and the word of God. 
When they were sent abroad for their improvement, Macrina 
induced her mother to concur with her in^founding two monas- 
teries, one for men, the other for women, at a little distance 
from each other, on their own estate, near Ibora in Pontus. 
That of men was first governed by St Basil, afterwards by St» 

<1) Symmach. Apol. t 4. Cone. p. 12fiS. (2) lb. p. 130U 



July 19.] st. mackina, v. 261 

Peter. Macrina drew up the rules for the nunnery with admira- 
ble prudence and pietj, and established in it the love and spirit of 
the most universal poverty, and disengagement from the world, 
mortification, humility, assiduous prayer, and singing of psalms. 
Gk>d wa3 pleased to afflict her with a most painful cancer : 
which at length her mother cured by making, at her request, 
the sign of the cross upon the sore ; only a black spot remained 
ever after upon the part that had been affected. 

After the death of St. Emmelia, Macrina disposed of all that 
was left of their estate in favour of the poor, and lived herself, 
like the rest of the nuns, on what she earned by the labour of 
her hands. Her brother Basil died in the beginning of the year 
379, and she herself fell ill eleven months after. St. Gregory 
of Nyssa making her a visit, after eight years' absence, found 
her sick of a raging fever, lying on two boards, one of which 
served for her bed, and the other for her pillow. He was ex- 
ceedingly comforted by her pious discourses, and animated by 
the fervour and ardent sighs of divine love and penance, by 
which she prepared herself for her last hour. She calmly 
expired, after having armed herself with the sign of the cross. 
Such was the poverty of the house that nothing was found to 
cover her corpse when it was carried to the grave^ but her old 
hood and coarse veil ; but St. Gregory threw over it his episco- 
pal cloak. She had worn about her neck a fillet, on which hung 
an iron cross and a ring. St Gregory gave the cross to a nun 
named Yestiana, but kept himself the ring, in which the metal 
was hollow, and contained in it a particle of the true cross. 
Araxus, bishop of the place, and St. Gregory led up the funeral 
procession, which consisted of the clergy, the monks, and nuns, 
in two separate choirs. The whole company walked singing 
psalms, with torches in their hands. The holy remains were 
conveyed to the church of the Forty Martyrs, a mile distant 
from the monastery, and were deposited in the same vault with 
the saint's mother. Prayers were offered up for them both. St. 
Macrina died in December, 379 ; but is commemorated by the 
Latins and Greeks on the 19th of July. This account is given 
U8 by St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the funeral discourse he made 
upon her, t. 2, p. 149 ; add the remarks of F. Bosch, the Bol- 
landist, t. 4, Julij, p. 589. 



262 ST. MARGARET^ V. M. [JULY 20 

JULY XX. 

ST. JOSEPH BARSABAS, C. 

He was one of the seventy- two disciples of our Lord, and was 
put in competition with St. Matthias to succeed the traitor 
Judas in the apostleship.(l) St. Chrysostom(2) remarks that 
St. Joseph was not displeased, but rejoiced in the Lord to see 
the preference given to St. Matthias. After the dispersion of 
tlie disciples he preached the gospel to many nations; and 
among other miracles, drank poison without receiving any hurt, 
as Fapias, and from him Eusebius, testify.(3) This saint, from 
his extraordinary piety, was sumamed the Just. 

The lives of the apostles and primitive Christians was a mi- 
racle in morals, and a sensible effect of Almighty grace. Burn- 
ing with holy zeal, they had no interest on earth but that of 
the divine honour, which they sought in all things ; and being 
wanned with the expectation of an eternal kingdom, they were 
continually discoursing of it, and comforting one another with 
the hopes of possessing it ; and they did little else but prepare 
to die. Thus by example, still more than by words, they sub- 
dued their very enemies to the faith, and brought them to a 
like spirit and practice. Their converts, by a wonderful change 
of manners, became in a moment new creatures. Those who 
had been the most bitter enemies, long bent to lust and passion, 
became the most loving, forgiving, and chaste persons in the 
world. Has grace wrought in us so perfect a conversion ? Do 
our lives glorify God's name in this manner, by a spirit and 
practice agreeable to the principles of our divine faith ? 

ST. MARGARET, V. M. 

According to the ancient Martyrologies, she suffered at An- 
tioch in Fisidia, in the last general persecution. She is said 
to have been instructed in the faith by a Christian nurse, to 
have been prosecuted by her own father, a priest of the idols ; 
and after many torments, to have, gloriously finished her mar- 
tyrdom by the sword. Her name occurs in the Litany inserted 

(I) Act. i. 20. (2) Horn. 8, in Act. (3) Eus. Hist. 1. 3, c. 39. 



July 20J rs. justa, &c. mm. 263 

in the old Roman order, and in the most ancient calendars of 
the Greeks. From the east her veiieration was exceedingly 
propagated in England, France, and Germany, in the eleventh 
century, during the holy wars. Her body is now kept at Monte- 
Fiascone in Tuscany. Vida, the glory of the Christian muses, 
has honoured St. Margaret who is one of the titular saints of 
Cremona, his native city, with two hymns ; begging of God 
through her prayers, not long life, riches, or honours, but the 
grace of a happy death and a holy life, that he might be ad- 
mitted, with a devout and pious heart, to praise God in the 
choir of his holy servants. See his hymns, and Pinius the Bol- 
landist, Julij, t. 5, p. 28. 

SS. JUSTA AND RUFINA, MM. 

These holy martyi's were two Christian women at Seville in 
Spain, who maintained both themselves and many poor persons 
by selling earthen ware. A fervent soul finds in the most 
ordinary course of life occasions of exercising many heroic acts 
of virtue, and makes every ordinary action a perfect holocaust 
by performing it with a most ardent desire of pleasing God 
with the entire sacrifice of itself. Such were the lives of these 
two faithful servants of God in the world. So perfect a virtue 
deserved to be honoured with the crown of martyrdom. 
Though these saints gave all their substance to the poor, and 
were desirous to serve every one for the edification of their 
souls ; yet no motives could draw them into any criminal con- 
descension. Not to concur to the idolatrous superstitions, they 
refused to sell vessels for the use of heathenish sacrifices. The 
Pagans, offended at their religious scruple, when Dioclesian's 
edicts renewed the persecution, broke all the ware in their 
shop, and impeached them for their faith before the governor. 
The prefect, after they had boldly confessed Christ, commanded 
them to be stretched on the rack, and their sides in the mean 
time to be torn with iron hooks. An idol was placed near the 
rack with incense, that if they would offer sacrifice, they should 
be that moment released; but their fidelity was not to be 
shaken. Justa expired on the rack : which when the judge 
saw, he ordered Rufina to be strangled, and their bodies to be 



.264 ST. CESLAS, c. [July 20. 

burnt. They suffered in the year 304. See their acts pub- 
lished by Maldonat ; also Ado, Usuard, &c 

ST. CESLAS, C, OF THE ORDER OP ST. DOMINIC. 

He was of the house of the counts of Odrovans, and brother to 
St. Hyacinth, and lived near Cracow in Poland. Having 
devoted himself to God in an ecclesiastical state, he became 
eminent for piety, learning, and the innocence of his manners. 
He was first instituted to a canonry at Cracow, but afterwards 
promoted to be conservator of Sendomir. His riches he em- 
ployed on the poor, leading himself a most abstemious peniten- 
tial life. Happening to accompany his uncle Yvo Konski, 
chancellor of Poland, into Italy, he received at Rome, together 
with St. Hyacinth, the habit of St Dominic from the hands of 
that holy founder in 1218. Returning into Germany and 
Poland he preached penance with wonderful fruit. In 1222 he 
founded at Prague a convent of one hundred and twenty-six 
friars, in which Andrew the bishop of Prague took the religious 
habit, having first, with the consent of Pope Honorious III., 
resigned his see. St. Ceslas built in the same city a nunnery 
of the same order, in which, soon after his death, queen Mar- 
garet, daughter of Leopold archduke of Austria, and widow of 
Henry king of the Romans, professed herself out of humility a 
lay-sister. The saint sent Adrian with twenty-six other friars 
of his order to preach the faith in Bosnia, where they all re- 
ceived the crown of martyrdom. St Ceslas himself preached 
in Silesia, and resided long at Breslaw. He directed St. 
Hedwiges in the paths of Christian perfection, was endowed 
with the gifts of prophecy and miracle, and filled the northern 
kingdoms with many eminent servants of God. 

In 1240 the Tartars, marching from Asia with an army of 
five hundred thousand men, fell like a torrent on the West, and 
spread universal desolation over Russia, Bulgaria, Sclavonia, 
Poland, and Hungary, to the borders of Germany. They slew 
Henry II., sumamed the Pious, duke of Silesia, in a great 
battle at Wolstadt in 1241, and marched against Breslaw his 
capitaL The inhabitants burned or hid their most precious 
effects, and abandoning the city to the enemy, shut themselves 



July 20.] st. aubelius. b. c. 2f>5 

up in the citadel. St. Ceslas bore them companj to assist and 
comfort them, and never ceased with tears to implore the diyine 
protection. God was pleased to hear his prayers. When the 
barbarians had made a breach, and were preparing to scale the 
walls, the saint coming from ofi^ring the divine mysteries ap- 
peared upon the walls, and at the same time a globe of fire fell 
from the heavens upon the camp of the infidels, which it filled 
with confusion and terror* In the mean time the Christians 
made a sally, and the numberless troops of the barbarians per- 
ceiving that heaven visibly fought against them, whilst many 
were perishing by the flame, betook themselves to flight, and 
abandoned their enterprise. Thus they who had overturned so 
many thrones, and trampled to the ground so' many powerful 
armies, saw themselves tumbled down from thei* victories and 
pride by the prayer of one humble servant of God, who re- 
newed on this occasion the miracles of Elias and Eliseus. The 
circumstances of this wonderful deliverance are authentically 
attested by ancient records, still preserved among the public 
archives of the city of Breslaw, and are related by Martin 
Cromer, bishop of Heilsberg or Warmia, in his history of 
Poland,. Longinus, and other historians of the northern king- 
doms. St. Ceslas died in July, the following year, 1242. His 
relics are preserved in a stately chapel at Breslaw. The im- 
memorial veneration of his name was approved by Clement 
XL, in 1713. See Touron, Vie de St. Dominique, p. 622^; 
Bzovius, t. 13; Longinus in Hist Polonise. Matthias de 
Miacovia, in Chronicis Polonise, et Benedict XIY., de Canoniz. 
1. 2, c. 34, p. 264. 

ST. AURELIUS, ARCHBISHOP OF CARTHAGE, C. 

He was archdeacon of Carthage, when, in 388, he was pro- 
moted to the archiepiscopal dignity of that see, to which was 
annexed a jurisdiction little inferior to that of a patriarch over 
all the metropolitans of the different provinces of Africa. He 
cultivated a strict friendship with St. Austin, held several 
councils against the Donatists, and was the first who condemned 
Celestius the Pelagian in a council held in 412, and Pelagius 
himself in another council in 416. He anathematized their 
heresy before St Austin entered the lists against it St 



266 ST. ULMAR, A. [.JULY 20. 

AurelitjB died in 423. He is bighly extolled by St. Fulgen- 
tius,(l) and is mentioned in the African Calendar of the fifth 
ac^e, on the 20th of July. See the Acts of the Councils of 
Carthage, Baronius, Baillet, &c. 

ST. ULMAR, OR WULMAR, ABBOT OF SAMER, 

THREE MILES FROM BOULOGNE. 

He was nobly bom at Sylviaco in the territory of Boulogne in 
Picardy. Renouncing the worid in his youth, he entered him- 
self a brother in the abbey of Hautmont in Haynault, where it 
was his employment to keep the cattle, and to hew the wood for 
the community. He was distinguished for his eminent spirit of 
prayer, and being compelled by obedience to receive holy 
orders, was promoted to the priesthood. He after this obtained 
leave to live alone in a hermitage near mount Cassel, and 
afterwards in 688 founded in a wood upon his father's estate 
of Sylviaco in the Boulognois, the abbey of Samer, corruptly 
po called for St. Uhnar's, at present of the Congregation of St. 
Maur. St. Ulmar founded a nunnery at Vileria, now Wiere 
aux bois, a mile from his own monastery, in which he placed 
his niece Bertana abbess. Cead walla, king of the West- 
Saxons, passing that way in his journey to Rome to receive 
baptism, conferred on St. Ulmar a notable largess towards car- 
rying on his foundation. In close retirement in his hermitage 
near mount Cassel, the saint preserved himself always free 
from worldly passions by flying from the occasions which 
chiefly excite them, and by withdrawing from the great scene 
of earthly business, envy, avarice, and strife. Here shutting 
out the busy swarm of vain images which beset us in the 
world, he inured his mind to happy recollection and heavenly 
contemplation. In this sweet repose he daily advanced in fer- 
vour and divine charity till he was called to the joys of his 
Lord on the 20th of July, 710. He was glorified by miracles, 
and is named in the Roman and other Martyrologies on the 
20th of July. On the l7th of June his relics were conveyed 
to Boulogne for fear of the plunder of the Normans ; and from 
thence to the abbey of St. Peter^s at Ghent, where they were 

(1) L. 2, de Praedest. 



July 20.] st. jerom jEMimANi, c. 267 

burnt by the fury of the Calvinists in the sixteenth century. 
See his life written soon after his death in Mabillon, Act, 
Bened, t. 3, p. 237; and more full, with new remarks, by 
Cuper the Bollandist, Jul. t. 5, p. 81. 

ST. JEROM iEMILIANI, C. 

FOUNDER OP THE CONGREGATION OF REGULAR CLERGY OF 
80MASCHA. 

He was bom at Venice of a patrician family ; and, in the most 
troublesome times of the republic, served in the troops from his 
childhood. Whilst he was governor of the new castle in the 
mountains of Tarviso, he was taken prisoner, cast into a dun- 
geon, and loaded with chains. His sufferings l\e sanctified by 
penance and prayer ; and being delivered by the miraculous 
protection of the mother of God, arriving at Tarviso, he hung 
up his chains before an altar consecrated to God under the 
invocation of the Blessed Virgin, and returning to Venice de- 
voted himself to the exercises of prayer and all virtues. At 
that time a famine and a contagious distemper having reduced 
many families to the greatest distress, he laid himself out in re- 
lieving all, but was particularly moved with compassion for 
abandoned orphans. These he gathered in a house which he 
hired, clothed and fed them at his own expense, and instructed 
them himself with unwearied zeal in the Christian doctrine 
and in all virtue. By the advice of St. Cajetan and others, he 
passed to the. continent and erected similar hospitals for orphans 
at Brescia, Bergamo, and other places; and others for the recep- 
tion of penitent women. At Somascha on the frontiers of the 
Venitian dominions between Bergamo and Milan, he founded 
a house which he destined for the exercises of those whom he 
received into his Congregation, and in which he long resided. 
From this house it took its name ; though it was sometimes 
called St. MayeuVs, titular of a college at Pavia, which St. 
Charles Borromeo put under his direction. 

The instruction of youth and young clergymen l)ecame also 
an object of his zeal in his foundations, and continues still to be 
in his institute. The brothers, during the life of the founder, 
were all laymen, and it was only approved as a pious Congre- 



^68 ST. PRAXEDSS, V. [JULT 21. 

gation. The holy founder died at Somascha on the 8th of 
Fehruary, 1537, of a contagious distemper which he had caught 
by attending the sick. He was beatified by Benedict XIV. ; 
and canonized by Clement XTTT. An office in his honour was 
appointed for the 20th of July, by a decree of the holy see pub- 
lished in 1769' Three years after his death, in 1540, his 
Congregation was declared a religious Order by Paul III., and 
confirmed under the rule of St. Augustine by St. Pius V., in 
1571, and again by Sixtus Y., in 1586. It has no houses out 
of Italy and the Catholic Swiss Cantons. It is divided into 
three provinces, of Lombardy, Venice, and Rome. The 
general is chosen every three years out of each province in its 
turn. See his life written in Latin by Aug. Turtura, Milan, 
1620, 8vo., and Helyot, Histoire des Ord. Rel. t. 4, c. 33. 



JULY XXL 

ST. PRAXEDES, VIRGIN. 

She was daughter of Pudens, a Roman senator, and sister to 
St. Pudentiana, and in the days of Pope Plus I. and the em- 
peror Antoninus Pius, edified the church of Rome by the bright 
lustre of her virtues. All her great riches she employed in re- 
lieving the poor and the necessities of the church. By the com- 
fort and succours which she afibrded the martyrs she endea- 
voured to make herself partaker of their crowns, and she lived 
in the assiduous exercise of prayer, watching, and fasting. She 
died in peace and was buried near her sister on the Salarian 
road. Bede and other martyrologists style her a virgin. An 
old title or parish church in Rome bearing her name is men- 
tioned in the life of Pope Symmachus. It was repaired by 
Adrian L and Paschal I. and lastly by St. Charles Borromeo, 
who took from it his title of cardinal. 

The primitive Christians lived only for heaven, and in every 
step looked up to God, regardless of all lower pursuits or meaner 
advantages that could interfere with their great design of know- 
ing and loving him. This constant attention to God awed them 
in their retirements ; this gave life and wings to their devotions, 



July 21.] st. babhadbesciabas, b. m. 1269 

and animated them to fervour in all their actions ; this carried 
them through the greatest difficulties and temptation^ and sup- 
ported them under all troubles and affictions. 

ST, ZOTICUS, M. 

BISHOP OV COBIAKA IN CAPPADOCIA. 

Hs first detected^ sealouslj confuted, and condemned the errors 
and impostures of the Cataphrjges or Montanists with their 
false prophecies, as Eusebius mentions. To this triumph oyer 
heresy and imposture he added the crown of martyrdom, which 
hQ received in the persecution of Severus, about the year 204. 
See Eusebius, b. 5, c 16, and the ancient Martyrobgies. 

ST. BARHADBESCIABAS, DEACON, M. 

In the fifteenth year of the great persecution raised in Persia 
by king Sapor IL by the command of Sapor Tamsapor governor 
of Adiabene, Barhadbesciabas, the zealous deacon of the city of 
Arbela, was apprehended and put on the rack. Whilst he was 
tormented, the officers continually cried out to him : *' Worship 
water and fire, and eat the blood of beasts, and you shall be im- 
mediately set at liberty." But the blessed deacon Barhadbesci- 
abas showed by the cheerfulness of his countenance, that the 
interior joy of his happy soul overcame the torments he felt in 
his body. He often said to the judge, " Neither you nor your 
king, nor any manner of torments shall ever be able to separate 
me ftrom the love of Jesus : Him alone have I served from my 
infancy to this old age." The tyrant at length condemned him 
to be beheaded, and commanded Aghaus, an apostate Christian 
nobleman, to be his executioner* The holy deacon stood bound 
waiting with joy for the happy moment which was to associate 
him to the angcds ; but Aghssus trembled so as not to be able to 
give the blow. He struck, however, seven times at the martyr^a 
neck, and not being able to sever his head from his body, run 
his sword into his bowels ; of which wound the holy deacon ex- 
pired soon after. The judge set guards to watch the blessed 
corpse ; but two clerks carried it off in the night, and buried it 
after the Boman fashion. He suffered on the 20th day of the 
♦ VOL. vn. B 



270 8T. TICTOR, It. [JULT 21 

moon of Jidjy in the year 354, of Sapor IL 45. See has ge« 
nnine Chaldaic acts in Aaaemani, t. 1^ p. 129. 

ST. VICTOR OF MARSEILLES, M. 

The emperor Maximrian, reeking with the blood of the The* 
bcean legion, and many oUier martyrs whom he had massacred 
in different parts of Gaul, arrived at Marseilles, the most nu- 
merous and flourishing church in those provinces* The tyrant 
breathed here nothing but slaughter and fury, and his coming 
filled the Christians with fear and alarms. In this general con- 
sternation, Victor, a Christian officer in the troops, went about 
in the night time from house to house visiting the faithful, and 
inspiring them with contempt of a temporal death and the love 
of eternal life. He was surprised in this action, so worthy a 
soldier of Jesus Christ, and brought before the prefects Aste- 
rius and Eutychus, who exhorted him not to lose the fruit of 
all his services and the favour of his prince for the worship of 
a dead man ; so they called Jesus Christ. He answered, that 
he renounced those recompenses if he could not enjoy them 
without being unfaithful to Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of 
Grod, who vouchsafed to become man for our salvation, but who 
ndsed himself from the dead, and reigns with the Father, being 
God equally with him. The whole court heard him with tu- 
multuous shouts of indignation and rage. However, the priso- 
ner being a person of distinction, the prefects sent him to 
Maximian himself. The incensed countenance of an emperor 
did not daunt the champion of Christ ; and the tyrant seeing 
his threats to have no effect upon him, commanded him to be 
bound hands and feet and dragged through all the streets of the 
city, exposed to the blows and insults of the populace. Every 
one of the heathens seemed to think it a crime not to testify 
their false zeal, by offering some indignity or other to the mar- 
tyr. Their design was to intimidate the Christians, but the 
example of the martyr's resolution served to encourage them. 

Victor was brought back bruised and bloody to the tribunal 
of the prefects, who thinking his resolution must have been 
weakened by his sufferings, began tq blaspheme our holy reli- 
gion, and pressed him again to adore their gods. But the mar* 



July 21.] st. victor, m. 271 

tjT, filled with the Holy Ghost, and encouraged by his presence 
in his soul, expressed his respect for the emperor and his con- 
tempt of their gods, adding : 'M despise your deities, and con- 
fess Jesus Christ ; inflict upon me what torments you please." 
The prefects only disagreed about the choice of the tortures. 
After a warm contest Eutychlus withdrew, and left the priso- 
ner to Asterius, who commanded him to be hoisted on the rack, 
and most cruelly tortured a long time. The martyr, lifting up 
his eyes to heaven, asked patience and constancy of God, 
whose gift he knew it to be. Jesus Christ appeared to him on 
thi rack, holding a cross in his hands, gave him his peace, and 
ttid him that he suffered in his servants, and crowned them, 
after their victory. These words dispelled both his pains, and 
his grief; and the tormentors being at last weary, the prefect 
ordered him to be taken down, and thrown into a dark dun- 
geon. At midnight God visited him by his angels ; the prison 
was filled with a light brighter than that of the sun, and the 
martyr sung with the angels the praises of God. Three soldiers 
who guarded the prison, seeing this light, were surprised at the 
miracle, and casting themselves at the martyr's feet asked his 
pardon, and desired baptism. Their names were Alexander, 
Longinus, and Felictan. The martyr instructed them as well as 
time would permit, sent for priests the same night, and going 
with them to the sea-side he led them out of the water, that is, 
was their godfather, and returned with them again to his 
prison. 

The next morning Maximian was informed of the conversion 
of the guards, and, in a transport of rage, sent officers to bring 
them all four before him in the middle of the market-place. 
The mob loaded Victor with injuries, and would fain have 
compelled him to bring back his converts to the worship of their 
gods ; but he said, " I cannot undo what is well done." And 
turning to them he encouraged them saying, " You are still 
soldiers ; behave with courage, God will give you victory. You 
belong to Jesus Christ ; be faithful. An immortal crown is pre- 
pared for you." The three soldiers persevered in the confession 
of Jesus Christ, and by the emperor's orders were forthwith be- 
headed. Victor prayed in the mean time with tears that he 
.might, by being united with them in their happy death, be pre- 



272 ST. VICTOR, M. [JULT 21 

sented in their glorious company before God ; but after having 
been exposed to the insults of the whole city as an immovable 
rock lashed by the waves, and been beaten with clubs and 
scourged with leather-thongs, he was carried back to prison, 
where he continued three days, recommending to God his mar- 
tyrdom with many tears. After that term the emperor called 
him again before his tribunal, and having caused a statue of 
Jupiter, with an altar and incense, to bo placed by him, he com- 
manded the martyr to offer incense to the idoL Victor went up 
to the profane altar, and by a stroke of his foot threw it down. 
The emperor ordered the foot to be forthwith chopped •ff; 
which the saint suilered with great joy, offering to God th^e 
first fruits of his body. A few moments after the emperor con- 
demned him to be put imder the grindstone of a handmill and 
crushed to death. The executioners turned the wheel, and 
when part of his body was bruised and crushed, the mill broke 
down. The saint still breathed a little ; but his head was im- 
mediately ordered to be cut off. .His and the other three bodies 
were thrown into the sea, but being cast ashore were buried by 
the Christians in a grotto hewn out of a rock. The author of 
the acts adds : " They are honoured to this day with many mi- 
racles, and many benefits are conferred by God and our Lord 
Jesus Christ on those who ask them through their n^erits.'' 
In the fifth century Cassian* built a great monastery near 

* John Cassian, priest and abbot of the great monastery of St. Victor's 
at Marseilles, was a native of Lesser Scytliia, then comprised imder 
Thrace. He inured hintself from his youth lo the exercises of an ascetic 
life in the monastery of Bethlehem. The great reputation of many holy 
anchorets in the deserts of Egypt induced him and one Germauus, about 
the year 390, to pay them a Tisit. Being much edified with the great 
examples of virtue they saw in those solitudes, especially in the wilder- 
ness of Scete, they spent there and in Thebais several years, ^ey lived 
like the monks of that country, went bare-foot, and so meanly dad that 
their friends would have been ashamed to meet them, and tiiey gained 

their subsistence by their work, as all the rest did. (Col. 4, e. 10.) 

Their life was most austere, and they scarcely ate two loaves a day each 
of six ounces. (Col. 19, c. 17.) In 403 they both went to Constanti- 
nople, where they listened to the spiritual instructions of St. Chrysostom, 
who ordamed Cassian deacon, and employed him in his church. After 
the banishment ol that holy prelate, Ca«sian and Germanus travelled to 
Home with letters from the clergy of Constantinople to defend their in. 
jured pastor, as Falladius informs us. Cassian was promoted to the 
order of priesthood in the West, and retiring to Marseilles, there founded 
nwo monasteries, one for men, and another for virgins, and wrote hit 



JlJLY 21.] ST. VICTOR, M. 273 

the tomb of this saint, wliich afterwards received the rule of 
St. Rennet, but was subsequently secularized by Benedict XIY. 
The relics of St. Victor remain in that church, the most ancient 
in all France, full of illustrious moniunents of primitive saints. 

spiritual Conferences and other works. He died in the odonr of sanctity soon 
after the year 433. His very ancient picture U shown in St. Victor's at 
Marseilles, where his head and right arm are exposed in shrines on the 
altar by the permission of Pope T>ban V. the remainder of his body lies 
in a marble tomb which is shown in a subterraneous chapel. That 
abbey, by a special grant, celebrates an office in his honour on the 23rd 
of July. ♦ 

His works consist, first of a book On the Incarnation, against Nesto- 
rius, written at the request of St. Leo. then archdeacon of Bome.->— 
Secondly, Of Institutions of a Monastics! Life, in twelrc books. In the 
four first he describes the habit that was worn, and the exercises and 
way of liTing that were followed by the monks of E^pt, to senre as a 
pattern ibr the monastic state in theWet^t. He says, their habit was 
mean, m^ely serving to oorer thdr nakedness; haying short sleeves 
which reached no fiwrther than their elbows ; they wore a girdle and a 
cowl upon their heads, but Ubed no shoes, only a kind of sandals which 
they put off when they approached the altar ; and they all used a walk- 
ing-staff, as an emblem that they vrere pilinims on eurth. He observes 
that the monks forsook all things, laboured with their hands, and lived 
in obedience ; he describe? the canonical hours of the divine ofi^ con- 
sisting of psalms and les^ns. He mentions that whoever desires to be 
admitted into a monastery, must give proofs of his patience, humUity, 
and contempt of the world, and be tried with demals and affronts : that 
no postulant was oUowod to give his estate to the monastery in which he 
settled : that the first lef son which is taught a monk is, to subdue his 
passions, to deny his own will, and to prsctise blind obedience to his 
superior. Thus he is to empty himself of all prevalence in his own abi- 
lities, learning, or whatever can feed any sdcret pride or presumption. — 
Casaian observes, that yomig monks were allowed no other food than 
boiled herbs, vritii a little salt; but that the extraordinary austerities of 
the Oriental monks in eating are not practicable in the west. In the 
eight last books of tliis work he treats of eight capital vices, prescribing 
the remedies and motives against them, and explaining the contrary 
virtues. He shows (1. 6, Inst. c. 5, 6,) that chastity is a virtue which is 
not to be obtained but by a special grace of Gkxl; which must be Implored 
by earnest prayer, seconded by watclifnlness and fiistlng. He every- 
where advises moderate fasts, but continual. (1. 5, p. 107» Ac.) He 
observes (1. 11, c. 4,) that vain-glory isthe last vice that is subdued, and 
that it takes occasion even from the victory itself to renew its assaults. — 
This seems the best and most useful of Cassian's writings, though the 
reading of his Conferences has been strongly recommended to monks by 
St. Bennet, St. John Climacus, St. Gregory, St. Dominic, St. Thomas, 
and others. 

In the book of his Conferences he has collected the spiritual maxims of 
the wisest and most experienced monks with whom he had conversed in 
Egypt This work consists of three parts ; the first contains ten Con- 
ferenoes, and was wrijiten in 423; the second comprises seven Confer, 
cnces, and was compiled two years later : the third was finished in 428, 
and contains seven other Conferences. Cassian, in this work, teaches 



274 ST. VICTOR, Mr [JULT 21. 

Some part of the relics of St. Victor was convejed to Paris and 
laid in a chapel built in his honour, which soon after, in the 
reign of Lewis the VL was enlarged, and the royal monastery 
of regular canons founded there, which bears the name of this 

that the end to which a monk consecrates all his labours and for which he 
has renounced the world, is, the more eaaXy to attain the most perfect 
purity or singleness of heart, without wliidi no one can see God in his 
glory, or enjoy his presence by his special grace in this life. For this he 
must forsake the world, or its gooda and riches ; he must renounce or 
die to himself, divesting himself of all vices and irregular incHnations j 
and thirdly, he must withdraw his heart from earthly or visible things to 
apply it to those that are spiritual and divine. (Cdlat. 1 and 3.) He 
says, that the veil of the passions being once removed, the eyes of the 
mind will begin, as it were naturally to contemplate the mysteries of 
God, which remain always unintelligible and obscure to those who have 
only eyes of flesh, or whose hearts are imclean, and their eyes over- 
clouded with sin and the world. (CoU. &,} This purgation of the heart 
is made by the exercises of compunction, mortification, and self-denial ; 
and the unshaken foundation of the most profound humility must be laid, 
which may bear a tower reaching to the heavjens ; for upon it is to be 
raised the superstructure of all spiritual virtues. (Coll. 9.) 

To gain a victory over vices he strenuously inculcates the advantages 
of discovering all temptations to our superior, for when detected, they 
lose their force ; the filthy serpent being by confession drawn out of his 

dark hole into the light and in a manner exposed, withdraws himself. 

His suggestions prevail so long as they are concealed in the heart 

(Coll. 2, c. 10, 11, andlnstit. 1. 9, c. 39.) This he confirms by the 
example of Serapion, cured of an inveterate habit of stealing bread above 
his allowance in the community, by confessing the fault. (Coll. 2, c. 11.) 
But he teaches that these exercises are but preparations ; for the end and 
perfection of the monastic state consist in continual and iminterrupted 
perseverance in prayer, as far as human frailty will permit. This is the 
conjunction of the heart with God. But this spirit of prayer cannot be 
obtained without mighty contrition, the purgation of the heart from all 
earthly corruption and the dregs of passions, and the illumination of the 
Holy Ghost, whose purest rays cannot enter an unclean heart. He com- 
pares the soul to a light feather which by its own levity is raised on high 
by the help of a gentle breath ; but if wet by the accession of moisture, 
is depressed down to the very earth. The mind can only ascend to God 
when it is disburdened of the weight of earthly solicitude and corruption. 
(CoU. 9.) 

He inculcates the use of frequent aspirations, recommending that oi 
the church, "Deus, in adjutorium meum intende," &c. ; and says, the 
end of the perfection of the monastic state is, that the mind be refined 
from all carnal dust, and elevated to spiritual things, till by daily pro. 
jrress in this habit ail its conversation may be virtually one continual 
})rayer, and all the soul's love, desire, and study, may be terminated in 
God. In this her union with him by perpetual and inseparable charity, 
she possesses an image of future bliss, and a foretaste or earnest of the 
conversation of the blessed. Inveighing against lukewarmness in devotion 
he makes this remark. (CoU. 4, c. 19.) ** We have often seen souls con. 
verted to perfection from a state of coldness, that is, from among world- 
Ungs and heathens; but have never seen any from among tepid Chris 



JOLY 21.] ST. VICTOB, M. S75 

saint, its glorious patron.* This institute and abbey were com^ 
menoed by William of Ghampeaux, archdeacon of Paris, a man 
of eminent piety and learning, who having taught for many 
years rhetoric and theology, with extraordinary reputation, in 
the cloister of the cathedral, retired to this little chapel of St. 
Victor, then in the skirts of the town. There with certain fer- 
vent clergymen he lived in close solitude, assiduous prayer, and 
great Austerity, allowing no other food to be served in his com- 
munity but herbs, pulse, and roots, with bread and salt By 
the pressing importunities of the bishop of Paris and other per- 
sons of distinction he was obliged to resume his theological lec- 
tures, which he seems to have continued at St. Victor's, as F. 
Gourddh shows. Whence BoUin calls this monastery the cradle 
of the university of Paris. In favour of this holy institute king 
Lewis VL founded and built there a magnificent abbey, which 
still subsists in a most flourishing condition. Gilduin, a mOst 
holy man, was appointed first abbot, whilst William of Cham- 
peaux taught there, who in 1113 was consecrated bishop of 
Challons on the Saone. Dying in 1121, accorcUing to his de- 
sire he was buried at Clairvaux, by St. Bernard, who had re- 

tians. These are, moreover, bo hateful to Grod, that by the prophet he 
bids his teaehers not to direct any exhortations to them, bat to abandon 
them as a fruiUess barren land, and to sow the divine word on new hearts, 
among sinners and heathens : ' Break up the new or fallow ground, and 
sow not upon land that is overrun with thorns.* " (Jer. iv. 3.) He ex- 
ceedingly extols the unspeakable peace and happiness which souls enjojr 
in seeking only God, and the great and wonderful works which he per« 
forms in the hearts of his saints, which cannot be truly known to any 
man except to those who have experience of them. (C)oll. 12, c. 12, and 
CoU. 14, c. 14.) Cassian in the thirteenth Conference, under the name 
of the Abbot Cheremon, favours the principles of the Semipelagians, 
though that error was not then condemned, it being first proscribed in 
the second council of Orange in 529. Whence St. Prosper himself, in 
Ins book against this discourse, never names him, but styles him a Ca- 
thoUe doctor. (I. contra CoUatorem, p. 826.) Cassian's style, though 
neither pure nor elegant, is plain, afiecting, and persuasive. His works 
were published with comments by Alard Gazseus or Gazet, a Benedictin 
monk of St. Yaast's at Arras, first at Douay in 1616; and afterwards 
vrith more ample notes at Arras in 1618. They have been since reprinted 
at Lyons, Paris, and Erancfort. See Dom Bivet, Hist. Lit. t. 2, p. 215, 
and Cuper the BoUandist, ad 23 Julij, t. 5, p. 458, ad 482. 

* See the most edifying history of the eminent and holy men of this 
monastery of St. Victor's at Paris, compiled by F. Simon Gourdan, in 
seven volumes, folio, kept in MSS. in the eurious public library of that 
bouae, t. 1, p. 128, &c. 



276 8T, TICTOBy K. [JCLT 21. 

ceived at his hands the abbatial benedictioQ.* See St Victor^s 
genmne acts, which are not unworthy the pen of Oassian, to 
whom some ascribe them; but without grounds. Tbej are 
published and much commended bj Bosquet in the fourth tome 
of his history of the Church of France, p. 202. See also Tille- 
mont, t 4, Ceillier, t. 3, p. 366. Fleury, 1. 8, n. 20. Bivet, 
Hist. Litter, 1 2, p. 231, and Guper the BoUandist, t. 5, JuL p. 
135. F. Oourdan has compiled at length the life of St Victor, 
with an account of many miracles wrought through his interces- 
sion, and a collection dfmany devout hymns and prayers in his 
honour, and other various memorials relating to this saint, in 
the seventh tome of his MS. history of the eminent meaa. of the 
royal abbey of St Victor at Paris. See also Oudin, t^ 2. De 
Seript£ccl.p. 1138. 

* Among tiie great men whidi this abbey produced in its infkncy, the 
most famous are Hugh and Richard of St. Victor. Hugh, a nadve of 
the territory of Ypres in Flanders, became a canon regular in this monas- 
tery ill 1115, was made prior, and taught divinity tiiere from the year 
1 IdO to his death in 1142. His works are printed in three toIs. fblio. In 
the first we have his literal and historical notes on the scripture ; also 
mystical and allegmical notes on the same by some later author of this 
house. In the second tome are contamed his spiritual works ; the soli- 
kquy of the soul, the praise of charity, a discourse on the method of 
praying, a discourse on lore between the Belored and the Spouse, four 
books on the vanity of the world, one hundred sermons, See, The third 
tome presents us his theological treatises, of which the principal are his 
two books on the sacraments. He was called a second Augustm, or the 
tongue of that great doctor, whose spirit, sentiments, and s^le he closely 
Idlows. His notes on the rule of St. Austin, in the second tome, are 
excellent : also those on the Decalogue. The book De daustro aidma» 
IS very useM for religious pers(His, and shows the austere abstin^soe and 
^seipline then observed in monasteries ; but is the work of Hugh Fpliet, 
a most pious and learned canon of this order, who was chosen abbot of 
St. Dionyedus's at Bheims, though he earnestly declined that dignily, ki 
1149. See Mabillon, Analecta, t. 1, p. 133; and Annal. 1. 77, p. 141. 
Ceillier, t. 22, pp. 200, 224. Martenue, t. 5, Aneodot. p. 867. 

Bidiard of St. Victor, a Scotchman, regular canon of St. Viotcv's at 
Paris, scholar of Hugh, chosen prior of that abbey in 11Q4, died in 1173. 
His works have been often r^rinted in two vols, fblio ; the best edition 
is that given at Bouen in 1660. His comments on the scripture are too 
diffiosive : his theolo^cal tracts are accurate, his writings on contempla. 
tion and Christian vhrtoes, though the style is plain, are ftill of the most 
sublime rules of an interior life. The coUecticm of spiritual maxims of 
these holy men which F. Gourdan has compiled from their writings and 
sayings, demonstrates their heavenly wisdom, lights, and experience in 
■pdritual things, and in the perfect spirit of all virtues, to which they at- 
tauied by an admirable purity of heart, and iqplrit of penaooe, prayer, 
and divine love. 



JlTLT 21.] ST. ARBOQA8TUS, B. C 277 

ST. ARBOGASTUS, BISHOP OF.STRASBURG, C. 
The Irish challenge this saint as a native of their island. The 
Scots also lay claim to him, and are supported by Richer's 
Chronicle of Sens, written in the thirteenth centory, and by 
the life of Su Florentine, his successor, though his acts say he 
was of a noble family in Aquitain. Travelling into Alsace he 
led an anchoretical life in the Sacred Forest (for this is the 
interpretation of the Teutonic name Heiligesforst), about the 
year 630. He was often called to the court of King Dagobert 
IL, and by his interest promoted to the episcopal see of Stras- 
burg. His acts relate, that not long after his exaltation he 
raised to life Dagobert's son, killed by a fall from a horse ; 
these acts call this prince Sigebert ; his name is not recorded 
by the historians. Many other miracles are ascribed to this 
saint ; who, assisted by the liberality of this king, enriched the 
church of Strasburg with several large estates. King Dagobert 
bestowed on it, for his sake, the manor and town of Rufach, 
with an extensive country situated on both sides of the river Alse 
or Elle, together with the old royal palace of Isenburg, residing 
himself at Earchem, near Molsheinu St Arbogastus also 
founded, or at least endowed, several monasteries, the princi- 
pal among which were Surburg and Shutteran : some say also 
Ebersheimunster ; but the chief founder of this last was Duke 
Athioo, the father of St. Odilio, by the direction of St. Deoda- 
tus, bishop of Nevers. St. Arbogastus died, according to Bosch 
tbe Bollandist, in 678, the year before Dagobert offered the 
bishopric of Strasburg to St. Wilftred, who was then on his 
journey to Rome. Upon his declining that dignity, it was con- 
ferred on St. Florentins. All writers on St. Arbogastus's life 
mention that in his last will, he ordered his body should be in- 
terred on the mountain which was the burial-place of male- 
factors. His will was complied with ; but the church of St 
Michael was afterwards built upon the spot, and surrounded by 
a village called Strateburg. Near it was founded the abbey of 
St Arbogastus, to which his body was translated with honour 
by his successor St Florentius. See the life of St Arbogastus, 
which seems to have been written in the tenth age, published 
with remarks by F. Bosch, t .5. Julij, p. 168. 



^73 ST. UAXT MAGDAIXai. [Jl^LT 

JULY XXIL 

ST. MABY MAGDALEN. 

The iDastrious penitent woman mentioned by St Lnke,(l) 
was, by her perfect conversion, an encouraging model of peni- 
tence to an succeeding ages. She is called the Sinner,* to 

(OLnkeTi. 



* Mention is made in the gospds of a woman wbo was a sinner, (Lnke 
Tii.) df Maiy of Bethania, the sister of lAzama, (John xi. 2. zii. 1. 
Mark xir. 3. Matt. zxri. 6.) andof Maiy Magdalen, who fbHowed Jesus 
from Galilee, and ministered to him. Many grare antfaon think all thia 
v^ belong to one and the same person; that she fdi into certain disorders 
' m ner yonth, and in chastisement was delirered orer to be possessed bjr 
seren derils; that she addressed herseif to Jesos in fbe house of Sunoa 
the Pharisee, and by her compunction deserred to hear from him that 
her sins were forgiven her ; and in oonseqnence was deliTered from the 
^eren derils ; that with her brother Lazams, and her sister Martha, she 
left Galilee and settled at Bethania, where Jesna ireqnentlj honoored 
their house with his presence. (See Pezron, Hist. Erang. t. 2, p. 350.) 
St. Clement of Alexandria, (1. 2, Fasdag. c. 8,) Ammonins, (Harmon. 
4, Erange.) St. Gregory the Great, (hom. 25 and 33, in Erang.) and 
from his time the greater part of the Latins down to the sixteenth cen- 
tory adopt 'this opinion ; though St. Ambrose, (lib. de Virgin, et L 6, 
in Luc.) St. Jerom, (in Matt xxvi. 1, 2, oontr. Jovin. c. 16, Fret in 
Osee et ep. 150,) St. Austin, (tr. 49, in Joan. n. 3,) Albertus Magnos, 
and St. Thomas Aquinas leave the question undetermined. The two 
last say the Latins in their time generally presumed that they were the 
same person, but that the Greeks distinguished them. Baronius, Jan- 
senius of Ghent, Maldonat, Natalia Alexander, (in BQst. EccL Sasc. I, 
Diss. 17,) Lami, (Harmon. Erang. etepist. Gallica,) Mauduit, (Ana- 
lyse des Erang. t. 2,) Pezron, Treret, and strenuously S(dier tiie BoU 
landist, t. 5, Julij. p. 187» and others hare wrote in defence of the opini<Hi 
of St. Gregory the Great. 

Others think these were distinct persons. This sentiment is adopted 
by the Apostolic Constitutions, (1. 3, c. 6,) St. Theophilus of Antioch, 
(in 4 Erang.) St. Irenaeus, (1. 3, c. 4,) Origen, (hom. 35, in Id^tt. et 
hom. 1, or 2, Cant.) St. Chrysostom, (hom. 81, in Matt. 26, et hom. 

61. in Joan.) St. Macarius, (hom. 12,) and by almost all the Greeks 

Among the modem critics Casaubon, (Exerdt. 14, in Baron.) Estios, 
(Or. 14,) three Jesuits, tiz. Bnlanger, (Diatrib. 3, p. 15,) Tunian, (in 
Consens. L 3, c. 6,) and Salmeron, (t. 9, tr. 49,) also Zagers, a learned 
Franciscan, (in Joan. 11,) Mauconduit, Anquetin, Tillemont, (t. 2, 
p. 30, et 512,) Hammond, and many others, strenuously assert these to 
fiare been three distinct women. 

Some, whose sentiment appears most plausible to Toinard and Calmet, 
distinguish the sister of Lazarus and Magdalen ; for this latter attended 
Christ the last year of his life, and seems to hare followed him firom Gku 
lilee to Jerusalem, when he came up to the Passover, (see Matt, xxrii. 
66. 57. Mark xr. 40, 41. Luke xxiii. 49.) at which time the sister of 



July 22.] st. mart magdalew. 279 

express her pre-eminence in guilt. This epithet seems to imply 
that she led a lewd and disorderly life. The scandal of her 
debaucheries had rendered her name infamous throughout the 
whole city. Nairn, Tiberias, or some neighbouring place in 
Galilee, seems to have been the chief theatre of her disorders, 
at least at the time of her conversion. They took their rise 
from small beginnings ; for no one becomes a great proficient in 
vice all at once. The fences of virtue are weakened by degrees 
before they are entirely broken down. 

The steps by which young persons, like this sinner, are led 
into evil courses,, are pointed out to us by our Divine Redeemer 
in the parable of the prodigal son. The source of all his mis- 
fortunes is a love of independence and of his own will. He is 
full of his own wisdom, and of a certain self-sufficiency ; is an 
enemy to advice, the means to find out truth and to discover 
dangers. All who contradict his passions, or tell him the truth, 
are odious to him : the counsels of tender parents he calls in- 
terested ; those of God's anointed too severe and scrupulous : 
those of the old and experienced, cowardly and mean spirited. 
Young persons, above all others, are in an age in which the 
devil prepares innumerable snares, the world lays many strata- 
gems, and passions easily eclipse reason ; and it behove^*them 
infinitely to be strongly persuaded that their safety consists 

Lazarus was with her brother and Martha at Bethania. (John si. I.) 
Moreover, these two women seem distinctly characterized, the one being 
called Magdalen, and being ranked among the women that followed Jesus 
from Galilee, the other being everywhere called the sister of Lazarus ; 
and though she might have possessed an estate at Magdalum in Galilee, 
and have come originally from that country, this constant distincfei of 
epithets naturally leads us to imagine them different persons ; but St. 
Irenseus, Origen, St. Chrysostom, &c. no where distinguish the penitent 
and Magdalen : and St. Luke having mentioned the conversion of the 
sinful woman (at Naim) in the next chapter, subjoins that certain women 
who had been delivered by him from evil spirits and infirmities, followed 
him ; and among these he names Mary Magdalen, out of whom he had 
cast seven devils ; whence it may seem reasonable to conclude that the 
penitent and Magdalen are the same person. 

Tliis disputation, however, seems one of those debatable questions 
which are without end, nothing appearing demonstrative firom the sacred 
text, or from the authority of the ancients. In the Boman Breviary the 
Penitent is honoured on this day under the name of Mary Magdalen, and 
for our edification the history of all these examples of virtue is placed in 
one point of view, as if they belonged to one person, conformably to 
the sentiment of St. Gregory and others ; but the offices are distinct in 
the Breviaries of Paris, Orleans, Vienne, Cluni, and some othert. 



280 ST. MAST HAGDAUBSr. [JULT 22. 

akogether in most anoere di^ositions of hmnSitj, obed]enoe» 
and docilitj. TractaUeness and dukifiilneas towuds superiors 
is the most essential yirtoe of that age, next to the ohiKgatian of 
reHgion, which we owe to God. Those companions^ whose 
discomse and behaTioar tend to inspire a contempt of parents 
and other saperimrsy are of all pests the most dangerous to 
youth. 

The prodigal son, Uinded hj his passionsi thought himself 
prudent and strong enough to be his own gOTemcnr and master, 
and flattered himself that his love of liberty and pleasure was 
not very criminal or unjust; but from this root all Tices have 
sprouted up, and are not to be restrained by him who opens to 
them such a door by shaking off the happy yoke of subjecticm, 
which is the divine ordinance. Such is the strange disorder of 
that mischieyous pasaon, that though the prodigal son lived in 
dignity and plenty, and enjoyed all temporal blessings and aU 
tiie comforts of life without feeling its troubles or knowing its 
miseries, yet he was not content. His subjection to a good 
father was true ficeedom ; he was the object of all his parent's 
cares, and he reaped the firuit of dl his labours. But so distem- 
pered was his soul, that the constraint of this tender guardian's 
watcllbl eye seemed to embitter all his pleasures^ and such an 
obedience appeared to him an insupportable burden andsUvery, 
which therefore he would shake off to have no other law but 
his own wilL This was his capital enemy, though he would not 
be so persuaded ; and by indulging it he fostered a young tiger 
in his own bosom, which soon grew too strong for him and tore 
him to pieces. We are astoni^ed at the quick progress which 
the passions make when once the bridle is let loose. The pro- 
digal youth, seeing himself possessed of that dangerous liberty 
irhich he had so passionately desired, full of false joy at the 
prospect of imaginary happiness, went into a foreign country, 
to be at a greater distance from aU troublesome advisers. His 
passions bdng so far yielded to, had no longer any bounds, and 
he denied his heart nothing of its irr^ular desires, being no 
longer master of himself. Unthinking and blinded he soon 
squandered away his fortune, without keeping any accounts, or 
knowing how it was spent ; he was surprised to find his hands 
empty, and himself starving, and that he had not yet found 



July 22.] st. mart magdalek. 281 

those enjoyments which he had promised himself; instead of 
which he had met with nothing but shadows and miseries. 
Nevertheless, cleaving stiU to so treacherous a world, and jet 
entertaining desperate foolish hopes of finding happiness in it, 
he went on in the pursuit of his passions ; and losing himself 
daily more and more in the mazes of sin, he was at length re- 
duced to have no other company but that of the moat filthy of 
beasts, and almost to perish with hunger at the heels of the hogs 
which he was condemned to serve and fatten. 

This is a true picture of the sinner who has thrown off the 
holy yoke of God, and has enslaved himself to his passions. 
How earnestly ought every Christian to pray that God may 
always so strengthen his resolution with his grace, that he may 
never receive any other than his sweet and holy law ? What 
completes the misfortune of the habitual sinner is, that few who 
have fallen into that gulf ever sincerely rise again. The very 
afflictions which converted the prodigal son throw tiiousands into 
despair. God's powerful graces are weakened after having been 
long contemned ; and habits grow stronger than reason* When 
the poison of sin has sunk deep into the heart, it is not ex- 
pelled by an ordinary grace. Of such a sinner that curse is 
pronounced, that even in his old age, if he ever arrive *at it, 
his bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they 
shall descend with him into the grave, and shall sleep with him 
in the dust.(l) Christ indeed came from heaven to save all 
such; in his tender compassion for their miseries he invites 
them to return to him, and for their encouragement has shown 
a remarkable example of his mercy in our saint Having con- 
sidered in the image of the prodigal son, the unhappy steps by 
which she fell, we shall, wiUi greater edification, take a view 
of the circumstances which have given so great a lustre to her 
repentance. 

Jesus, not long after he had raised to life the son of a widow 
at Naim, a town in G alilee, was invited to dinner by a certain 
Pharisee called Simon, who seems to have lived in the same 
town, or some neighbouring city, as Calmet shows. Our Lord 
was pleased to accept his invitation, chiefiy that he might con- 
foimd die pride of the Pharisees by manifesting the power of 
(IWobxx. 11. 



282 ST. MART MAGDALEN. [JULY 22^ 

his grace in the wonderful conversion of this abandoned sinner. 
His bowek had yearned over her spiritual miseries, and he 
spread upon her soul a beam of his divine light which pene- 
trated her understanding and her heart so effectually, that, lis- 
tening to the interior voice of his grace, she saw the abominable 
filth and miseries in which she was plunged, was filled with 
confusion and horror, and conceived the most sincere detesat- 
tion of her ingratitude and baseness. Our Lord went to the 
banquet in great joy to wait for this soul, which he himself had 
secretly wounded with his holy love, and which he was pleased 
to draw to him in the midst of a great assembly, that by her 
public repentance she might repair the scandal she had .given, 
and he might give to all succeeding ages an illustrious instance 
of his mercy towards all repenting sinners. She began her 
conversion by entering into herself. As her fall was owing to 
inconsideration, so doubtless her first step towards repentance 
was serious reflection on the misery of her present condition, 
the happiness she had forfeited, and the punishment she was to 
expect. From these considerations she raised her thoughts to 
others higher and more noble, those of divine love, reflecting 
who He is whom she had so grievously offended, and how ex- 
cessive and incomprehensible his goodness is, which she had so 
long and so basely slighted. This motive of love, to which 
Christ ascribed her conversion, drew from her eyes a torrent of 
tears, and made her cry out with the prodigal son, that she had 
sinned against heaven. That model of true penitents forgot his 
corporal miseries and all other circumstances of his fall, being 
fuU of this reflection alone, how he could be capable of offend- 
ing so good a parent. He acknowledged himself unworthy to 
be again called a child ; yet deferred not a moment to restore 
his heart to him to whom he owed it, and, confiding in his indul- 
gence, threw himself upon his mercy, hoping by his goodness 
to be admitted among his hired servants. 

In the like dispositions does our penitent raise her heart to 
God. She hearkens not to the suggestions of worldly prudence 
which might seem to require some time for deliberation, for 
settling her concerns, or for taking proper measures about her 
conversion itself; the least delay appears to her a new crime, a 
fresh aggravation of her misfortune. She was informed that 



July 22.J st. mabst magdalisw. 283 

our Divine Redeemer was at table in the house of the Pharisee, 
She did not so much as think of the disgrace to which she ex- 
posed herself by appearing before a numerous and honourable 
assembly, of the reproaches and disdain she was to expect &om 
the Pharisee, or the fear of moving Christ himself to indignation 
hj an unseasonable importunate address. One moment's delay 
in seeking her physician seemed too much, because her heart 
was now wounded with divine love. Sinners who, in returning 
to God, think too nicely that they have temporal interests to 
provide for, friends to please, and opportunities to wait for, are 
far from the dispositions of this happy penitent. She found 
mercy because she sought it before all things. Had she dallied 
with grace, it would have been justly withdrawn ; had she been 
for compounding with her passions, they would have again en- 
slaved her more strongly than ever. She found all difficulties 
vanish in a moment, because her conversion was sincere and per- 
fect ; by one steady resolution the work is done. "What further 
deliberation can one that has sinned require, than that the gate 
of mercy is yet open to him ? Let him at aU rates make haste 
to find it, though for this he should sacrifice every thing else. 
So insupportable to this holy penitent was the stench of her own 
filth, and the load of her guilt, that she could not defer the 
remedy an hour longer to wait for a better opportunity, or to 
inquire if our Lord was at leisure to hear her ; and a firm confi- 
dence in his boundless mercy was her encouragment, and her 
strong assurance that he would not reject her tears. 

When the prodigal son said to himself, / will arise, and will 
go to my Father, we might have asked him, says St. Peter 
^hrysologus, what he trusted to for his pardon ? upon what 
•♦e grounded his confidence ? upon what hope or assurance he 
presumed td appear in the presence of him whom he had so 
heinously offended ? His answer would have been : " This is 
the assured grounds of my confidence, that he is my Father. 
I have forfeited all title to the name or rank of his son ; but 
he hath not lost the quality or affection of a parent. I want no 
stranger to intercede with a father. The tender affection of 
his own breast pleads powerfully within him, and is sure to 
incline him in my favour. His paternal bowels are moved, 
and yeoni to restore to a son by pardon that life which he 



284 8T. MART MAGDALEIC. [JuTT 22. 

fonnerlj gave him by birth."* In like sentiments this peni- 
tent woman seeks her Abnighly Physician, professing herself 
altogether undeserving and unworthy of mercy, and therefore 
alleles nothing on her side to recommend her to his compassion, 
except only that she was the work of his hands, though an un* 
natural and rebellious child, in whom that title was only a griev* 
ous exaggeration of her guilt ; but she confidently appeals to his 
infinite goodness and mercy, and begs that for his own sake hd> 
will save her, in whom he sfiU discovers, though frightfully dis- 
figured, the traces of his divine image which his own omnipotent 
hand had formed, and which it is in his power easily to repair 
and perfect. 

In these dispositions she bolted into the chamber where Jesus 
was at dinner with the Pharisee, and, regardless of what others 
thought or said of her past life or of her present boldness,'!' she 
made up to her Redeemer and Physidan. She durst not appear 
before his face, and therefore went, behind him ; and the nearer 
she approached his sacred person streams gushed more abun- 
dantly from her eyes. She reflected how basely she had defiled 



* ** Qu& spe? qii& fidaci&? qpk confidentia ? Quft spe ? ilia qui Pater 
est. Ego perdidi quod erat lilii : ille quod Fatris est uon amisit. Apud 
patrem non intercedit extraneus : iutus est in FatrU pectore qtu inter- 
venit et ezorat, aiTectus. XJrgentur Fatris vitjcera itcnun genitoia per 
Teniam," Ac. St. Feter Chryeolog. Serm. 2. 

t The andent Jews did not dt down on carpets spread on the floor to 
eat, as the Arabs, Turks, and other inhabitants of the countries about 
Pidesline do at this day. Their tables were raised abore the ground. 
(Exod. zxv. 24 ; Jud. 1. 7 ; Matt. xv. 27 ; Lnke xri. 21.) Neither He- 
brews, Greeks, nor Romans used napkins or tahle-clotlis. Their ancient 
custom was to sit at table, as we do now. (Frov. zxiii. 1.) But after 
Solomon's time the Jews leaned or lay down on nonches round the table. 
Amos, (iv. 7,) Toby, (xi. 3,) and E/.ekid (xxiii. 41,) speak of eating on . 
beds or couches ; but this custom was not general. It was become very 
frequent in our Sayiour's time, who ate in this manner nou only on the 
present occasion, but also when MagdaJen anointed his feet, (Matt. xxvi. 
7,) and at his last supper, (John xiii 2:^ ;) so that it seems to hare then 
been the ordinary custom of that coxmtry. The Jews seem to have 
learned it from the Fersians, (Esth. i. 6; yii. 8.) They took two m^ds 
a day firom the times of the primitive ])atriarobs ; but never ate before 
noon, (Ecdes. x. 16; Isa. v. 11 ; Acts u. 15.) And their dinner was 
usually rather a small refreshment than a meal ; on fiist-days the Jews 
never ate or drank till evening. See Calmet, Dissert, sur le Msmger des 
Hebreux. Fleury, MoBurs des Israelites, et McBiirs des Chretiens. Also 
Alnay, sur hi Vie Frivee des RomaiiiB. 



JULT 22.] 8T. MARY UAGDALEW. 385 

and sought to destroy her own soul, and how impiously she had 
robbed Christ of many other souls whilst he was come from 
heaven, and was ready to sacrifice himself on the cross for her 
and them ; and at this and other like considerations she was not 
able to moderate her grief. The inward confusion she felt at 
the sight of her sins and baseness made her despise all the con- 
fusion ^hich she could receive before men, or rather rejoice in 
it to meet that contempt which she acknowledged herself most 
justly to deserve from all creatures. Attentive only on Christ, 
from whom she sought her health and salvation, standing at his 
feet, she watered them with her tears, wiped them with her hair, 
most respectfully kissed them, and anointed them with rich per- 
fumes and sweet-scented essences which she had brought in ^n 
alabaster box. She now defaces or consecrates to penance 
whatever had formerly been an instrument of sin ; her eyes, 
which had been full of dangerous charms, are now converted 
into fountains of tears to cleanse the stains of her soul ; and her 
hair, once dressed in tresses and curls to ensnare souls, now 
hangs loose and dishevelled, and serves for a towel to wipe our 
Lord's feet, which she kisses with her lips, and scents with her 
perfumes, formerly the inrcentives of vice. The penitent must 
consecrate his riches to Christ in the poor which are his feet ; 
must employ his eyes in tears, and his lips in supplications for 
mercy, and must make all that serve to charity and mortification 
which before served self-love. These exterior ofierings must be 
accompanied with the interior sacrifice of the heart, by humble 
confidence in the divine mercy, by lively faith and ardent love, 
with which the soul of a sinner approaches to Jesus, and is re- 
conciled to him. Our holy penitent prepared as it were an 
altar at the feet of our Lord, on which she ofiered to him the 
true sacrifice of a contrite and humble heart There losing the 
use of her speech whilst grief intercepted her words, she spoke 
only by her tears ; but before Him to whom the secrets of her 
heart were open, these sighs, and this silence itself, was a louder 
cry than, that of any words could have been. Thus she earnestly 
begged of 6od*s pure mercy, that pardon which she confessed 
herself most unworthy to obtain. 

Jesus, who had himself inspired her with these dispositions, 
f^est on her a favourable eye of mercy. He was come to the 

VUA-. VII. J 



286 tT. MART MAGIIALSN. VJoLT 22. 

Pharisee's banquet exultibg with holy joy, which sprang from 
his foreknowledge of the conversion of this soul ; the mainspring 
of all he did and suffered on earth being that insatiable thirst 
for the salvation of sinners which brought him from heaven^ 
and which was not to be satisfied but bj his sufferings on the 
cross, and by the last drop of his blood poured out for them 
upon it. In these sentiments he had testified that it was hia 
delight to converse with sinners, out of compassion for their 
miseries, being desirous to draw them out of that gulf into which 
they had blindly plunged themselves. This he expressed hy 
many moving parables, especially that of the prodigal son^ 
where he paints his mercy in the strongest colouring by the 
manner in which he represents the good old father receivings 
him upon his return. From the time of his going astray the 
tender parent never allowed himself any respite in his tears, 
inquiries, and search : at length, from an eminence on which he 
boked about on every side, still hoping he should one day see 
him return, he descried him at a distance. He saw only a dis- 
figured, languishing, and frightful spectre ; the wretched remains 
of a debauchee and rake worn out by riots and revellings ; hia 
features horrid and defaced, his body resembling a walking 
skeleton, but half covered with a few filthy rags. Yet, under 
this disguise, his eye, directed by love, discovered him at a great 
distance, and before any other could see him, knew that it was 
his son. For from being disgusted at such a spectacle, he ran 
to meet him, affection ^ving vigour to his enfeebled age. He 
remembered no longer his past behaviour, but rushing to his 
embraces, kissed him, and bathed his head and face with floods 
of tears which joy drew from his eyes, and which he mingled 
with the tears of sincere grief and affection which the penitent 
son abundantly poured forth. The good father wiped them off 
his face, prevented his confusion, restored him to his former 
rank, called for, and gave him the best robe, a ring upon his 
finger, (a symbol of dignity,) and shoes on his feet. He, more- 
over, ordered a fatted calf to be forthwith killed, and gave a 
splendid entertainment with music, inviting all to rejoice with 
him and make merry, because his son whom he lamented esk 
dead was come to life again, and he that had been lost was 
found. If the birth of this son, when he was first brought into 



JDLT 22.] 8T. MABY MAGDAIiEN. 287 

life^ had been to him a subject of great joy, how much more 
reason had he to rejoice seeing him now restored bj a second 
birthy so much the more joyful, as it wiped away his tears, and 
changed his grievous sorrow into comfort? Thus doth our 
loving God and Bedeemer receive the penitent sinner ; thus is 
there joy in heaven upon one sinner that doth penance. The 
Holy Ghost clothes him with the robe of sanctifying grace, puts 
a ring on his hand, the emblem of his divine gifts, and gives 
shoes to his feet, that is, fortifies him with strength to tread on 
the venomous aspick and basilisk, and to trample upon the 
n^ng lion and dragon. 

The Pharisee who had invited Jesus to his table, was shocked 
to «ee an infamous sinner weU known in that city, admitted by 
our Lord to stand at his feet, and secretly said within himself 
that He could not be a prophet, or know that she was a scan- 
dalous person. To inculcate our strict obligation of shunning 
bad company, G^kL commanded all intimacy with public sinners 
to be avoided, lest the sound should be infected by the contagion 
of their vices. The haughty Pharisees construed this law ac- 
cording to the false maxims of their pride, as if it were a part 
of virtue to despise sinners, and as if that respect and charity 
which we owe to all men, were not due to such ; but the humble 
man, whilst he shuns the snare of wicked company, places him- 
self below the worst of sinners, as the most ungrateful of all , 
creatures ; discharges all offices of charity, and spares neither 
tears nor pains to reclaim those who are gone astray. The 
contempt of any one is always the height of pride, which de- 
grades a man in the sight of God beneath that sinner whom he 
undervalues. This was the case of the Pharisee ; and such was 
the disorder of his pride that it betrayed him into a rash judg- 
ment by which he condemned a penitent who was then a saint ; 
and, arraigning the goodness and mercy of God, blasphemously 
censured the sanctity of our Redeemer. Nothing is more won- 
derful in the conduct of the Son of God on earth, than the 
patience and meekness with which he bore the contradictions, 
murmurings, and blasphemies of men in most unjustly condemn- 
ing his charity itself. We cannot form any idea, unless we 
have experienced it, what force such injurious treatment hafi to 



2?rt5 ST. HART MAGDALEN. L'^ULT 22. 

make men abandon the good which they have began, and ceaso 
bestowing favours on those who murmur against them. Christ 
has encouraged us bj his example to this heroic practice of 
virtue, teaching us that the most effectual means of confounding 
slanderers is to instruct them by silence, meekness, perseverance 
in good works, and a constant return of sincere kind offices ; ho 
shows how we must still persevere steadfastly to regulate our 
intentions and actions according to the maxims of piety, and 
give ourselves no trouble about what men will say of us. 

Christ sought indirectly by a parable, to cure the pride and 
rash judgment of this Pharisee, and convince him that she to 
whom much had been forgiven, then loved God the more ; con- 
sequently was more acceptable to him. Some interpreters ud^ 
derstand his words, that much was forgiven this penitent, 
because her love and sorrow were great and sincere ; others 
take the meaning to be, that gratitude would make her after 
this mercy more fervent in love. Each interpretation is un- 
doubtedly true ; but, as A. Lapide shows, the first seems most 
agreeable to the context. The conversion of sinners is usually 
begun by motives of fear, but is always perfected by those of love ; 
and the fervour of their love will be the measure of the grace 
which they will receive. By the love of vanity the soul faUs from 
Christ ; and by his divine love she returns to him. How fervent 
was this love in our devout penitent ! By it she is become at once 
insensible of the reproaches and judgment of men ; she defers not 
her sacrifice a single moment, and allowlft not herself the least mi- 
tigation in it ; she cuts off all her engagements, extirpating them 
to the very root both in her heart and actions ; she renounces for 
ever all dangerous occasions of her disorders. With what cou- 
rage and resolution does she embrace aU the most heroic prac- 
tices of penance ? confessing publicly her crimes : looking upon 
the utmost humiliation as her due and her gain, and as falling 
far short of what she deserves ; chastising sin in herself with- 
out mercy, in order to excite the divine compassion ; making 
the number and enormity of her sins the measure of her penance, 
or rather desiring to set no bounds to it, as the malice of her 
offences went beyond all bounds ; and devoting the remainder 
gf her life to tears, prayer, and every exercise of virtue and 



JULT 22.] ST. MART MAGDALEN 289 

divine love. She is the first to confess Jesus Christ publidly 
before men, and in the presence of his enemies. By these dis- 
positions she deserved that her Lord should take upon him her 
defence, and declare himself her protector. Happy are those 
sinners who by the sincerity and fervour of their repentance 
will have at the last day their Judge, Redeemer, and God for 
their advocate and patron I The first and most important grace 
which the church teaches us in her litany most earnestly to ask 
of God is, that He vouchsafe, in his mercy, to bring us to this 
true penance. 

Mercy is the property and the favourite attribute of our divine 
Redeemer ; and tinder is not so soon kindled by fire when ap- 
plied to it, as the divine mercy blots out all sin when it is im- 
plored with a heart full of confusion and truly penitent. Hence, 
Christ assured this humble sinner that her offences were can- 
celled, and that her lively faith, animated by ardent charity, 
which drew from her eyes tears of repentance, had saved her ; 
and he insured to her that solid and happy peace which is the 
fruit of such a repentance. The pious Cardinal Berulle ad- 
mires the happy intercourse between the heart of this holy 
penitent and that of Jesus ; the first employed in the most per- 
fect sentiments of compunction, love, and entire sacrifice ; the 
second, in the tender motions of mercy, love^ and goodness ; the 
penitent offers fioods of tears; these Jesus repays with treasures 
of graces and mercy, by which he makes her soul a heaven on 
earth, as bright and pure as the angels, and the throne of the 
whole blessed Trinity. The hearts of the penitent and of 
Jesus are two sources which perpetually answer each other ; 
the more the penitent pours forth her heart in contrition, the 
more abundantly does Jesus in return bestow on her his infi- 
nite graces. It is at the feet of Jesus that these wonders are 
wrought ; witness this example, and that of the sister of La- 
zarus, in the house of Simon the Leper in Bethania. It is 
good for us to make this our dwelling in spirit. The adorabk 
feet of Jesus so often wearied in seeking sinners, and at last 
bored on the cross for their salvation, are the source of all 
blessings. Here this true penitent consecrates to him her 
heart, her mind, her actions, her perfumes, all she is oi 
hasi and here he cleanses her soul, and kindles in her hi^ 



r 



5y0 ST. MART MAQDAI^ICN. [JfLY 22, 

lore, which the rebel angel lost in heaven. All his attention 
is taken up on her, he entertains her alone, forgetting the 
master of the feast, and others that were seated with him at 
table. He even gave the Pharisee sensible proofs how much 
her feryour and penance surpassed in the sight of God his pre- 
tended justice and charitj, though it were presumed reaL Per* 
severance in this fervour completed her happiness. Gratitude 
to God for so great a mercj, and so distinguishing a grace was 
to her a fresh spur to advance every day in this love with 
greater ardour and fidelity. Thus the greater the debts were 
which had been forgiven her, the more earnestly she strove 
with all her powers to love him who vouchsafed to accept her 
humble sacrifice. This same motive of gratitude ought to 
have no less weight with those who^ by God's singular grace, 
have always preserved their innocence; for, whether God 
shows mercy by pardoning sins or by preventing them in us, 
we are totally indebted to Him for the grace which we receive. 
Upon this great principle, St. Austin addresses the Pharisee 
who despised our holy penitent, in the following words :(1) 
** O Pharisee ! to say you are less indebted to the divine mercy, 
because less was forgiven you, is a capital ingratitude and pride. 
For, by whom were you preserved from those crimes which 
you did not commit ? One who hath sinned much stands in« 
debted for the gracious pardon of exceeding great debts. Ano- 
ther who hath sinned less, owes to Grod the benefit, that he hath 
not defiled himself with grievous sins. You have not fallen into 
adultery ; but God saithtoyou, it is owing to me who governed 
and protected you. If no tempter ever enticed you, this was 
the effect of my special care and providence in your favour* 
If you escaped the occasions of dangers from time and place, 
this likewise was ordained by me. Perhaps, a temptation and 
an opportunity of sinning occurred; yet I withheld you bj 
wholesome fear, that you did not consent to the eviL You are 
indebted to me for your preservation from all the crimes which 
you did not commit ; for there is no sij that one committeth, 
which another person might not commit if he were not preserved 
by him who made man.** We cannot sufficiently admire and 
praise the excess of the divine goodness towards men who were 
(1) St. Aug. Senn. 9&» c. 6. m). Ben. olim 23, ex. £0. 



.^j3j 



July 22.] st. mart magdalett'. tjgi 

bom cbildren of wrath, and vessels of weakness and corruption. 
Wonderful is his mercy in those whom he preserves from the 
contagion of vice and mortal sin ; but its influence appears with 
the greatest lustre in sinners whom by repentance it not onlj 
cleanses from their guilt, but exalts to the highest places in hi^ 
favour. Of this our fervent penitent is an instance, who, 
after her conversion, surpassed others in the ardour of her cha« 
rity, with which she gave herself up entirely to the service of 
her Redeemer. 

St Clement of Alexandria, St. Gregory the Great, and many 
other writers both ancient and modem, doubt not but this peni- 
tent was Mary Magdalen, of whom St Luke makes first mention 
in the following chapter. This surname seems to have been 
given her from Magdala, a town mentioned by Josephus, or 
rather from Magdalum, both situated in Galilee.* She was by 
extraction a Galikean, and is reckoned among the devout 
women who followed Christ from Galilee. St Luke, after 
speaking of the conversion of her who had been a sinner, say8(l) 
that certain women who had been cured of wicked spirits and 
infirmities followed Christ in his travels through Galilee, and 
np to Jerusalem, and assisted him with their substance ; and 
our Lord received such good offices from them, to give them an 
occasion of exercising a gratitude and charity with which he 
was well pleased. Among these, the evangelist names Mary 
Magdalen, out of whom our Lord had cast seven devils, Joanna 
the wife of Chusa, Herod*s steward, and one Susanna. St 
Gregory the Great, Lightfoot, and some others, by these seven 
devils understand seven capital vices of which Magdalen was 
cured by her conversion : but Maldonet, Grotius, and otbers 
doubt not but she had been literally possessed by seven evil 
spirits, by whom she might be agitated at intervals, and which 
were cast forth at her conversion. Gratitude and devotion 
having attached her to our Divine Redeemer after so great a 
benefit, she followed him almost wherever he went, that she 
might have an opportunity of listening to all his sacred instruc- 

(1) Luke viu. 2. 

* Ferrarias, Daniel, Sanson, Calmet, and Monsieur Robert agree ic 
placing the castle of Magdalum near the I^oke of Genesareth. called the 
•ea of Galileib. 



^2 ST. MABT MA.ODALBH. [JULY 22. 

lions, and of exercising her charity in ministering to him of 
her substance.* She attended him in his sacred passion, and 
stood under the cross on Mount Calvaij. For her to arrive at 
the summit of divine love, it was necessary she should pass 
through the sharpest trials. ** No one," says Thomas k Kempis, 
** was highly rapt whose fidelity was not sooner or later put to 
the test ; for he is not worthy of the high contemplation of God 
who hath not, for God's sake, been exercised with some tribu- 
lation ; and the trial going before is usually a sign of ensuring 
consolation." A great mystery is contained in those words of the 
evangelist : — There stood near the cross of Jesus, Mary his 
mother, and his mother^s sister Mary of Cleophas, and Mar^ 
Magdalen, Happy association I happy state and situation near 
Jesus on his cross I cries out the devout Cardinal BeruUe. This 
is a new order of souls which consists in the spirit, in the in- 
terior, and is invisible to men, but visible and glorious to the 
tjea of God and the angels. An order of souls crucified with 
Jesus, and through Jesus, which takes its birth from his cross. 
The order, at the same time, both of the cross and of heaven ; 
the order and school of love by the martyrdom of the heart ; 
which by learning to die to the world and inordinate self-love, 
lives to God and his pure love. This happiness we attain to, 
by being imited in spirit to Jesus crucified, as Magdalen was 
at the foot of his cross. She suffered by love what he suf- 
fered in his body by the hands of the Jews. The same cross 

* Some take Mary Magdalen to be the sister of Martlia and Lazarus, 
of whom mention is made in the life of St. Martha. When Jesus, six 
days before his passion, supped in the house of Simon sumamed the 
Leper, whilst Martha waited on him, and Lazarus sat at table, Mary 
anointed his feet and head with precious ointment which she had brought 
in an alabaster box. The Greeks and Romans practised the same custom 
of using sweet scented ointments at banquets. Judas Iscariot murmured 
at tills action out of covetousness, pretending the price of the ointment 
had better been gi?en to the poor ; but Jesus commended Mary's devo- 
tion, said that her action would be a subject of admiration and edification 
wherever his gospel should be preached, and declared that she had by it 
advanced the ceremony of embalming his body for his burial. Though 
Christ has substituted the poor in his stead, to be succoured by us in 
them ; yet he is well pleased when charity consecrates some pait of our 
ridies to i^is external worship,* to whom we owe all that we possess. But 
nothing can be more odious than for ministers of the altar, with Juda% 
to or)Ter avarice under a cloak of zeal. See John xii. 1, 2, 3 ; MatU 
xxTi 6 i Mark ^iv. 6, 



1 

J! 



JCX/Y 22.J ST. MABY MA.OX>AL£N. 293 

crucified Jesus and Magdalen in him and with him. The 
thorns pierced her heart with his head; and her soul was 
bathed in all his sorrows ; but the crucifixion was in both a 
martyrdom of love ; and that love which triumphed over Jesus 
by making him die on the cross, crucified her heart to all inor- 
dinate love of creatures, thenceforward to reign and triumph 
alqne in all her afiections, so that she could say in a twofold 
sense : " My love is crucified." Mary Magdalen forsook not 
her Bedeemer after his death ; but remained by his sacred 
body, was present at its interment, left it only to obey the law 
of observing the festival, and having rested on the Sabbath 
from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, as soon as th« 
festival was over went to buy spices in order to embalm oui 
Lord's body. Having made all tilings ready, in company with 
other devout women, she set out very early the next morning 
with the spices, before it was light, and arrived at the sepul- ^ 
chre just when the sun was risen.(l ) As they went they were 
anxious how they should get the heavy stone which shut up 
the door of the monument, token away ; but upon their arrival 
found it removed to their hands. God never fails to be with 
his servants in what they undertake for his honour ; and the 
difficulties, whether real or imaginary, with the apprehension of 
which the devil attempts to discourage them, are banished by 
confidence and resolution, and vanish as shadows in the execu- 
tion. The pious women looked into the supulchre, and finding 
the body not there, Mary Magdalen ran to inform Peter and 
the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them : " They 
have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and I know 
not where they have laid him.'* SS. Peter and John, the two 
most fervent in love among the apostles, ran immediately to 
the sepulchre, and were there assured by the holy women who 
were at the door of the monument, that going in they had 
seen two angels clad in white shining apparel, and that one of 
them who sat at the right hand of the place where the body 
had lain, bid them not to fear, but to acquaint the apostles 
that Jesus was risen, showing them at the same time the place 
where his body had been laid. Peter and John having nar- 
rowly viewed the sepulchre, doubted no longer of what was 
(1) Mark xvi. 2 ; Luke xxiv. 1 ; John xx. 1. , 



294 8T. MABr MAGDALSN. [JULT 22. 

told ihem« and in great atttonishment returned to Jerusalem to 
the other disciples. Mary Magdalen, who had brought them 
to the sepulchre of her Lord, made the throne of divine love, 
would not return with them, or be drawn from the sacred place 
where the true ark of the testament, the bodj of her Ke- 
deemer, had rested three days, and continued at the monument 
bemoaning herself for not being able to see her Bedeemer, 
either dead or alive. Not being able to assuage the violence of 
her grief and of her desire to see her Lord, she stood weeping 
without the door of the sepulchre. The entrance being low 
and narrow she stooped down to look into it again and again, 
and beheld the two angels in white, one of them sitting at the 
place where Jesus's head lay, and the other at the feet, who 
thus accosted her : " Woman, why weepest thou ?" She re- 
plied : ** Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know 
not where they have laid him.** Neitlier the surprise of this 
apparition nor the brightness and glory of these heavenly mes- 
sengers could touch her heart, or divert her thoughts from him 
whom she loved, and whom alone she sought, and we suffer so 
many foolish objects to distract us, and carry away our affec- 
tions. In her answer to the angels she called him 3fy Lord, 
to express the share which by love she had in him, and her 
title to him as her Gk)d, Lord, and Bedeemer. Afterwards 
to the apostles she caUs him The Lardy to excite their duty 
and love to the common Lord of all creatures. But why did 
not these angels inform her that he whom she so earnestly 
sought was risen in glory ? Doubtless, because the Lord of 
angels would reserve it to himself to give her that comfort. 
Blessed be thy name for ever, O adorable Jesus ! who so ten- 
derly wipest away the tears of thy servants with thy own hand, 
and sweet voice, and convertest their sorrow into transports 
<lf inexpressible joy. Jesus first manifested himself to Mag- 
dalen in disguise to make a trial himself of her love ; but his 
tenderness could not suffer a delay, and he soon discovered 
himself openly to her ; for, as soon as she had returned the an- 
swer above mentioned to the angels, she turned about and saw 
Jesus himself standing by her, but took him for the gardener. 
He asked her why she wept, and whom she sought ? She said 
to him : '' Sir, if thou hast taken him hence tell me wherd 



J 



Jolt 22. su mart macdalen. 295 

thou hast laid him, and I will take him away." According to the 
remark of St. Bernard and of St. Thomas of Villa Nova, love 
made her not to name him^ because being full of him alone, she 
imagined every body else must be so too, and that this stranger 
must understand of whom she spoke. Love also made her for- 
get her own weakness, and think herself able to carry a heavy 
corpse, provided she could be so happy any way as to serve her 
beloved ; for to ardent love nothing seems impossible or diffi- 
cult. Jesus, infinitely pleased with her earnestness and love, 
manifested himself to her, saying with his sweet and amiable 
voice : Mary I He at first mentions her tears, and the ob- 
ject which she so earnestly sought, to excite her love. All 
this while she knew him not, though he was present and 
conversing with her, because these words carried not with 
them the ray of light to discover him ; but her name was 
no sooner pronounced by him, but his voice excited in her 
a rapture of light and love, and gave her the most sublime 
and full knowledge, and the sweetest enjoyment of the most 
desirable of objects, of him risen in glory who was the life 
of the world, and her life. Hearing him sweetly call her 
by her name, and thus knowing him, she, turning, said, B^ib* 
baniy that is. Master. And casting herself at his feet in 
transports of devotion, she would have embraced them. But 
Jesus said to her: "Do not touch me; for I have not yet 
ascended to my Father ; but go to my brethren, and tell them 
that I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and 
V your God.*' That is, my Father by nature, yours by grace, 
says St. Austin. He bade her make haste to carry his message 
to his beloved disciples for their speedy comfort^ and not lose 
time in giving demonstrations of her reverence and love. St. 
Leo explains these words of our Lord as follows :(1) " It is not 
a time to demonstrate your aflection for me in such a manner 
as if I were in a mortal state ; I am with you but for a short 
time, to strengthen your faith. When I shall have ascended to 
my Father, then you shall again possess me for eternity.** Thus 
Mary Magdalen, out of whom Jesus had cast seven evil spirits, 
was the first who saw Him after his rising from the dead. This 
pre-eminence of grace, this distinguishing favour and love of 
^^1) Si. Leo. Senn. 2. de Ascens. 



296 ST. MABT MAODAUBir. [JuLT 22. 

Jesus, was the recompense of her ardent love, by which she 
attended last his bodj in the sepulchre, from which she was 
only drawn by the duty of the Sabbath ; and she was the first 
who returned thither: she sought him dead, and found him 
living. In obedience to his commands, she immediately de- 
parted to acquaint the apostles with the joyful message.(l) 
JesiM, who suffered her so long at his feet to satisfy her ardent 
love and compunction, when he received her to mercy, here al« 
lows her after her long search, scarcely to remain a few moments 
in the state of enjoyment ; but he separates himself from her 
to return into the secret of inaccessible light, invisible to mor- 
tal eye. Why does not he who is Life itself allow her to live 
in his happy presence ? Why does not he allow her at least as 
many hours of enjoyment as she had spent in her search of 
him? But this separation itself is an effect of his greatest 
love, this life being a state of action, of conflict, and of trials 
for the exercise of virtue ; and Magdalen in this separation it- 
self, which was from him, by his appointment, and for her 
greater advancement in his love, found by obedience, zeal, and 
resignation to his will, her comfort, life, and great increase of 
his love and all graces. The other devout women who had seen 
the angels at the sepulchre, in their return to Jerusalem, were 
also favoured with an apparition of our Lord. He having met 
and saluted them, they prostrated themselves at his feet, and 
embraced them, worshipping him, though they were greatly 
afraid.(2) Jesus bid them not fear, but go and tell hb brethren 
that he would go before them into Galilee, where they should 
see him.* 

(1) John XX ; Calmet*8 Vie de J. C. ch. 57 
(2) Matt, xxviii. 9 ; Luke xxiy. 10. 

• Certain Greeks, writers who lived in the seventh or later ages, tell 
ns, that after the ascension of our Lord, St. Mary Magdalen accompanied 
the Blessed Virgin and St. John to Ephesus, and died and was buried in 
that city. This is affirmed by Modestus, patriarch of Jerusalem in 920,* 
and by St. Gregory of Tours. St. Willibald, in the account of his pil. 
grimage to Jerusidem, says, that her tomb was shown him at Ephesua. 
Simeon Logotheta mentions that the Emperor Leo the Wise caused her 
relics to be translated from Ephesus to Constantinople, and laid in the 
church of St. Lazarus, about the year 890. But these modem Greeks 
might perhaps co^ound Mary the sister of the Blessed Virgin, or the 
* Horn, in Marias Uoguecta ferente*. 



J 



JOIiT 22.] ST. MART MAQDAI.EN. 297 

It is an ancient popular tradition of the inhabitai».'» of Pro- 
vence, in France, that St Mary Magdalen, or perhaps Mary, 
the sister of Lazarus, St. Martha, and St. Lazarus, with som« 
other disciples of our Lord, after his ascension, being expelled 
by the Jews, put to sea, and landed safe at Marseilles, of which 
church they were the founders, St. Lazarus being made the 
first bishop of that city.* The relics of these saints were di»i- 
covered in Provence in the thirteenth century, those of S%. 
Mary Magdalen at a place now called St, Maximin's, those of 
St Martha at Tarascon, upon the Rhone, and others in St. 
Victor's, at Marseilles. They were authentically proved gef 
nuine by many monuments found with them in these several 
places. Charles L, King of Naples, and brother of St I^wis, 
was at that time sovereign count of Provence ; but he being 
then in Naples, engaged in war with the house of Arragon, hi« 
son, Charles of Anjou, prince of Salerno, governed Provence. 
This prince was beaten at sea by the fleet of the King of Air 
ragon in 1284, and taken prisoner ; and though his father died 
the year following, he could not recover his liberty before the 
year 1288. He ascribed his deliverance to the intercession of 
our saint, the discovery of whose relics had excited his devor 
tion to her : he had already founded the church of St. Maxvf 
min's upon the spot where they were discovered, and assisted 
at the solemn translation of them in .1279* He committed this 
royal foundation to the Dominican friars, and the prior, who ig 
nominated by the king, is exempt from the ordinary jurisdio? 
tion both of the archbishop of Aix, and of the itiimediate sn-^ 
periorS of his order. The chief piirt of the relics of this saint 
was translated from the subterraneous chapel in the middle of 
this church, and hAtg put in a porphyry urn, the present of 

fllster of Lftzaras, or some other Mary among those who are mentioned 
in the gospel with Mary Magdalen. The relics shown in the monastery 
at Vezelay in Burgundy, ten leagues from Auxerre, in the diocess of 
^utun. may be a portion of the body of St. Mary Magdalen, or of some 
other Mary mentioned in the gospel. This famous ancient monastery of 
Vezelay was secularized in 1537 ; and the church, which is longer than 
that of our Jjody at Paris, is now served only by ten canons. 

* See Nat. Alex. saec. 1 ; and Solier the Bollandist, Jullj, t. 5, who 
OODfirms the tradition of the inhabitants of Provence, (p. 213, § 14,) 
pnd r^ects that of Vezelay in Burgundy, whither some pretend Uiat hef 
^^j was triinsla^ed out of Proveni^e. lb. § 11, ^2, 13, p. 207^ 



298 8T. MAET MAGDALEN. {^JcLT 22. 

Pope Urban YIIL, was placed over the high altar. Kin^ 
Lewis XIV. and the principal noblemen of his court were pre- 
sent at this translation, which was performed with great pomp 
in 1660. The sainf s head, with many other relics, remains in 
the subterraneous chapel ; it is set in a gold case, enchased 
with large diamonds, and surmounted with the royal crown of 
Charles II., styled King of Sicily or Naples. Before it is a 
curious statue of Queen Anne of Brittany, on her knees, made 
of enamelled gold. Three leagues from St. Maximin's, 
towards Marseilles, is a famous solitary convent of Dominicans, 
situated on a very high rock, encompassed on every side with 
wild deserts and mountains. It is called La Ste. Baume; 
which in the Proven9al language signifies Holy Cave. It was 
anciently a celebitited hermitage, and is a place now resorted 
to by pilgrims, out of devotion to this glorious saint. Both 
Latins and G^eks keep the festival of St. Mary Magdalen 
on the 22d of July ; it is in some places a holiday of precept, 
and was such formerly in England, as appears from the council 
of Oxford in 1222. 

The pious Cardinal BeruUe was most t^iderly devoted to 
this great saint, whom he called his principal patroness ; and 
nothing can be more affecting in sentiments of compunction 
and divine love than the discourses which he has left us in her 
honour.* She is the excellent model of penitents. If we have 
sinned, why do not we by her example speedily lay hold of the 
sovereign remedy of penance ? If violent temptations, and 
terrible enemies seem to stand in our way, if the world aUuro 
us, if the devil fight fiercely against us, and unbridled pas- 
sions are rebellious and clamorous, other penitents have cou- 
rageously surmounted greater obstacles th«h we can meet with. 
God incites 'us no less than he did them, and he is no less ready 
to fight in us, and for us. Jesus holds out the crown to encou- 
rage us, and has already prepared the banquet of spiritual joy 
and sweetness for us at our return. If we arise in earnest he 
wiU come, and will make his solemn supper in our soul ; and 

• These are the fruit of his pious meditations in the chapel of the Mag- 
dalen, the favourite retired place of his devotions, in which an excellent 
inarble statue of tliis great man on his kness, is erected in the church oi 
hifl Carmelite nuns at Paris See his Works, pp. 369 to 405. 



Jolt 22,J tr. VANDkiLLE, a. 299 

there will be exultation and a voice resounding praise throan^ 
the whole heavenly court ; but we must never think our p^ 
nance accomplished, must never put a stop to our tears so long 
as we remember that we have sinned : God prolongs our life 
that we may continue to weep for our ingratitude in having of- 
fended him. If our conversion be sincere, to make amends 
for past losses and offences, we must consecrate to the divine 
service with the utmost fervour all our time, and all that we 
are to do. The Magdalen, after Jesus Christ had rendered 
himself master of her soul, had neither heart nor liberty but to 
give herself entirely to her deliverer. 

ST. VANDRILLE, OR WANDREGISILUS, 

ABBOT OF FONTElfELLES, IN NOBMANDT. 

He was nearly related to Pepin of Landen and Erchinoald, 
the two first lords in the kingdom of Austrasia ; and in his 
youth was made count of the palace under Dagobert L He 
was humble on the highest pinnacle of honours, and mortified 
amidst pleasures. To retrieve himself from the dissipation and i 

other ill effects, of which hurry and much conversation with 
the world are dangerous occasions, he frequently retired into 
his closet, and there conversed much with God by devout 
prayer, and with himself by serious consideration on his own 
duties, condition, and spiritual miseries. In compliance with 
the will of his parents he took to wife a virtuous and noble 
lady ; but, on the very day of his marriage, obtained her con- 
sent that ^they should both consecrate their virginity to God, 
which they did by a mutual vow on the same day. Vandrille, 
in 629, took the monastic habit at Montfaucon, in Champagne, 
an abbey then lately founded by St. Baudri. He afterwards 
built a monastery upon his own estate, called Elisang. In or- 
der to perfect himself in the most approved rules and exercises 
of an ascetic or monastic life, he took a journey to Bobio and 
to Rome. After his return into France, he spent ten years in 
the monastery of Romans, on the Isere. After which term, 
with the blessing of his abbot, he repaired to St. Oiien, arch- 
bishop of Rouen, by whom he was some time after ordained 
priest. In 648 the. saint founded the famous monastery of 



3*M) «T. JOSEPH. [July 22 

Fontea.elles» five leagues below Rouen, in the territory of 
Caux, in which he in a short time saw himself at the head of 
three hundred monks. His life was always most austere ; he 
slept little, was clad in sackcloth, and was most scrupulonslj 
exact in all the exercises of the monastic rule, in which, he 
was well assured, the sanctification of his state consisted. He 
went to receive the recompense of his labours on the 22nd of 
Julj, in 666, being ninety-six years old. He was buried in 
the church of St. Paul, now in ruins : his body was translated 
by St. Bainus into that of St. Fetei^s, still standing ; and in 
944 to Ghent. It was lost in the persecution of the Calvinista 
in 1578 ; but an arm had been restored to Fontenelles, and the 
other arm had been given to the abbey of Brone, where these 
relics are still preserved. See his two lives of the same age in 
Mabillon, and in Bosch the Bollandist, Julij, t. 6, p. 253. 
Also Gallia Christ. Nova, t. i L, pp. 165, 166, and the history 
of the translation of his relics to the abbey of Blandine, now 
St. Peter's, at Ghent, and a history of his miracles, with F. 
Bosch's notes, t. 5, p. 281 ; also, F. Toussaint-du-Flessis, De<- 
■cript Geogr. Hist, de la Haute Normandie. 

SAINT JOSEPH OF PALESTINE, 

COMMONLY CAIiLED COUNT JOSEPH. 

The Jews, after the destruction of Jerusalem, erected two aca- 
demies, the one at Babylon, the other at Tiberias, a city on 
the lake of Genesareth, rebuilt by Herod, in honour of the Em- 
peror Tiberius. Both these schools flourished till the Saracen 
empire overran those countries. That of Tiberias produced 
the Massoretes or Massoretic doctors, so famous for the inven- 
tion of the vowel points in the Hebrew tongue, and their care 
in preserving the genuine text of the Holy Bible. Though the 
Jews then retained no sort of jurisdiction or form of govern- 
ment, yet they chose one among their chief doctors to whom 
tliey gave the title of patriarch or prince of the captivity. The 
most celebrated person who ever bore this honour among them 
was Hillel, whose name is still in great veneration with the 
Jews, and who was their most learned oracle, and the princi- 
pal founder and ornament of their academy at Tiberias. This 



July 22.j st. Josi.PH. 301 

HHlel, a few days before his death, sent for a Christian bishop 
in the neighbourhood, under the character of a physician, who 
ordered a bath to be prepared in his chamber, as if it had been 
for his heahh, and baptized him in it. Hillel received the di- 
vine mysteries, and died. 

Joseph, one of his assistants, called Apostoli, whose life we 
are writing, was witness to this secret transaction, and having 
always been the confidant of Hillel, had the care of his son 
Judas, who succeeded him in the dignity of patriarch of the 
Jews. He found the holy gospels in Hillel's treasure, and read 
them with incredible pleasure. The young patriarch fell into 
evil coulees, and employed magical arts to seduce a Christian 
woman ; but the sign of the cross made his charms of no effect. 
Joseph was surprised to hear this pradigy. He seemed in a 
dream one night to see Christ, and to hear from his mouth these 
words : " I am Jesus whom thy fathers crucified t believe in 
me*** He relished our holy faith more than ever, and going 
into Cilicia to collect the tenths for the patriarch, he borrowed 
again the holy gospels. The Jews, already dissatisfied with his 
conduct, finding him with this holy book, dragged him to their 
synagogue, and cruelly scourged him. They were preparing 
worse treatment for him, when the bishop reseued him out of 
their hands. Joseph having already begun to suffer for Chiist, 
was soon disposed to receive baptism* 

Constantino the Great became master of the East in 323. 
He gave Joseph the title and rank of count, with authority to 
build churches over Palestine, wherever he should judge pro- 
per. Joseph began to raise one at Tiberias. The Jews em- 
ployed many artifices to hinder the work, and stopped his lime- 
kilns from burning by enchantments, but he, making the sign 
of the cross upon a vessel of water, and invoking the name of 
Jesus, poured it on the kilns, and the fire instantly burst forth 
and burned with great activity. Count Joseph showed no less 
zeal against the Arians than against the Jews, and both con- 
spired together to persecute him ; but he was protected by his 
dignity of count, which gave him a superior command and au- 
thority. Joseph, however, when the Emperor Constantiu« 
persecuted the orthodox prelates, retired from Tiberias to the 
neighbouring city Scythopolis, where, in 355, he 'odged bu 

VOL v'U. V 



302 ST. DABIU8, c. [July 22* 

Eusebius of Vercelli, banished by the Arians. His was the 
onlj Catholic house in that town. He harboured many other 
illustrions servants of God, and among the rest St. Epiphasiius, 
who had from his own mouth the particulars here related. 
Joseph was then seventy years of age. He died soon after, 
about the year 356. The Greeks and Latins both mention his 
name in their murtyrologies. See St. Epiphanius, haer. 30, c. 
4» Tillemont, t. 7. Fleury, L 11, n. 35^ Dom Gervaise, in 
his life of St. Epiphanius, c. 18, 19, 20, and Pinius the Bol- 
landist, t. 5, Julij, p. 238. 

ST. MENEVE, ABBOT 

He was bom in Anjou, of a family allied to the Emperor 
Charlemagne. From his infancy it was his only ambition to 
serve Christ with his whole heart. When he was of an age to 
be settled in the world, his parents obliged him to accept a ring 
sent him by a great lord of the country, named Baronte, as a 
token that he would marry his daughter ; but to prevent this 
engagement he fled into Auvergne, and there received the mo- 
nastic habit at the hands of St. Chaffre, or Theofrede, who 
was then oBconome of the monastery of Cannery or Cormeri, 
so called from its founder, Carmen, duke of that country, since 
called St. Theofrede's or Chaffre's monastery, in Auvergne, 
four leagues from Puy, in Velay, whom he had met at Menat, 
and followed to this abbey. Here he lived seven years, under 
the holy Abbot Eudo ; then returned to Menat, seven leagues 
from Clermont : this monastery he built in such a manner as to 
have borne the name of its founder. He governed it for many 
years with great sanctity, and died in 720. He is honoured 
with singular veneration in Auvergne and Anjou, and men- 
tioned by Usuard on the 22nd of July. See Mabillon, sec. 3. 
Ben., part 1. Labbe, t. 2. Bibl. Novae, p. 591. Branche, 
Vies des SS. d' Auvergne et Velay. Baillet, &c. 

ST. DABIUS OR DAVIUS, C. 

A ZEALOUS Irish priest who preached with wondei-ful fruit in 
his own country and in Albany in Scotland ; is titular saint of 
the parish of Domnach Cluana in the county of Down, and 



July 23.] 8t. apollikakis, b. m. 303 

Kippau in the Highlands, where a famous churich is dedicated 
to God under his invocation by the name of Movean. See 
Colgan in MSS. 



JULY XXIII. 
SAINT APOLLINARIS, MARTYR, 

BISHOP OF RAVENNA. 

See Pinius in the Acts of the Saints, Julij, t. 5, p. 329 ; and Par^, Illy 
lici Sacri, t. 1, p. 259. 

St. Apollinaris was the first bishop of Ravenna. Bede, in 
his true Martyrology, says that he sat twenty years, and was 
crowned with Martyrdom in the reign of Vespasian. His acts 
say that he was a disciple of St. Peter, and made by him bishop 
of Ravenna. Though their authority deserves little regard, this 
circumstance must be allowed, being agreeable to the time, and 
supported by other authorities. St. Peter Chrysologus, the most 
illustrious among his successors, has left us a sermon in honour 
of our saint, (1) in which he often styles him a martyr ; but 
adds, that though he frequently spilt portions of his blood for 
the faith, and ardently desired to lay down his life for Christ, 
yet God preserved him a long time to his church, and did not 
suffer the persecutors to take away his life. So he seems to 
have only been a martyr by the torments he endured for Christ, 
which he survived at least some days. His body lay first at 
Classis, four miles from Ravenna, still a kind of suburb to that 
city, and its sea-port, till it was choked up by the sands. In 
the year 549 his relics were removed into a more secret vault 
in the same church, as an inscription still extant there testifies. 
See Mabillon.(2) St. Fortunatus exhorted his friends to make 
pilgrimages to his tomb, and St. Gregory the Great ordered 
parties in doubtful suits at law to be sworn before it. Pope 
Honorius built a church under his name in Rome about the 
year 630. It occurs in aU Martyrologies, and the high venera- 
tion which the church paid early to his memory is a sufficient 
testimony of his eminent sanctity and apostolic spirit. 

The virtue of the saints was true and heroic, because humble, 

Cl^ Scnn. 128. (2) Mab. Iter. Italic, p. 41. 



304 ST. AF OLLINARI8, ' B. M. [Jui-Y 23 

and proof against all trials. That < f the heathen philosophers 
was lame, luad generally false and counterfeit, whence Tertul- 
lian calls the latter, Traders in fame. *^ Where is now the 
similitude," says he, " between a philosopher and a Christian ? 
a disciple of Greece and of heaven ? a trader in fame, and a 
3aver of souls ?* between a man of words and a man of works?" 
And St. Jerom writes : " A philosopher is an animal of fame, one 
who basely drudges for the breath of the people."! Lactantius 
severely rallies Cicero, because, though he was very sensible of 
the vanity of the worship then established, yet he would not 
have that truth told the people for fear of unhinging the reli- 
gion of the state. " Now what is to be done with a man," says 
our Christian philosopher, *^ who knows himself in an error, 
yet wilfully dashes upon a rock, that the people may do so too ? 
who makes no use of his wisdom for the regulation of his life, 
but entangles himself to ensnare others, whom, as the wiser 
person, ho was obliged to rescue from error. But O, Cicero, if 
you have any regard for virtue, attempt rather to deliver the 
people out of ignorance. It is a noble enterprise, and worthy 
all your powers of eloquence. Never fear but your oratory will 
hold out in so good a cause, which never failed you in the de- 
fence of so many bad ones. But Socrates' prison is the thing 
you dread ; and therefore truth must want a patron ; but cer- 
tainly, as a wise man, you ought to despise death in competition 
with truth ; and you had fallen much more honourably by speak- 
ing well of truth, than for speaking ill of Antony ; nor will you 
ever rise to that height of glory by your Philippics, as you would 
have done by labouring to undeceive the world, and dispute 
the people into their sense8."(l) The philosophers did not love 
truth well enough to suffer for it, Plato dissembled for fear of 
Socrates' hemlock ; but the Christian religion raised its profes- 
sors above all considerations present, for the joy that was set 
before them. 

(1) Lactant. 1. de Origine Erroris, § 3, 



* Famas uegociator, et vitsa. Tertul. Apol. c. 46. 
t Pliilosophus gloriaj animal, et populam aurae vUe mandpium. S, 
Micron, ep. ad Julian. 



Jdly 24.] ST. LUPUS, B 0. 306 

ST. LIBORIUS, BISHOP OF MANS, C. 

He was descended of a noble Gaulish family, and bj bis inno- 
cence and sanctity of life was recommended to the priestbood in 
the cburcb of Mans. He loved retirement and prayer, never 
conversed with seculars but on spiritual accounts, and linked 
himself only with those among the clergy whose actions and 
words were such as might inspire him more and more with the 
spirit of his state. His distinguished learning and virtue fixed 
all eyes upon him, and in 348 he was chosen fourth bishop of 
Mans. Indefatigable in all the functions of his charge, he 
prayed and fasted much, and was most attentive in succouring 
the necessities of the poor, by that means to draw down the 
blessing of God upon himself and his flock. He built and en- 
dowed many new churches in his diocess, and having governed 
it forty-nine years, died about the year 397. His remains were 
translated to Faderborn in 836, and he is honoured as patron 
of that city. See Tillemont, t. 10, p. 307. Fleury, 1. 28, n. 61, 
p. 495. 



JULY XXIV. 

ST. LUPUS, BISHOP OF TROYES, C. 

iTom his ancient accurate hfe, extant in Surus, and illustrated with 
notes by F. Bosch the Bollandist, Julij, t. 7» p. 19. See also Ceillier, 
t. 15, p. 40. Tillemont, t. 16, p. 127. Rivet, Hiat. Litter, t. 2, p. 
436. Calmet, Hist, de Lorraine, t. 1,1. 6, n. 44, p. 274 ; and Camu- 
zat, Catal. Episc. Trecens. p. 153, et Antiqoitates Tricassinse, &c., 
8vo. 1610. 

A. D. 478. 

St. Lupus, called in the French St. Leu, was born of a noble 
family at Toul, and being learned and eloquent, pleaded at the 
liar for some years with great reputation. He married Pime- 
niola, a virtuous sister of St. Hilary of Aries. After six years 
spent in holy wedlock, fired with an ardent desire of serving 
God with greater perfection, they parted by mutual consent, 
and made a mutual vow of perpetual continency. Lupus betook 
himself to the famous abbey of Lerins, then governed by St 
Uonoratus. He lived there a year and added many austerities 



306 8T. I.UPU8, B, c [July 24, 

to those prescribed by the rule, yet always regulated his fervour 
by the advice of .St. Honoratus. He sold great part of his es- 
tate for the benefit of the poor, when he renounced the world. 
After the first year, when St. Honoratus was made bishop of 
Aries, he went to Macon in Burgundy to dispose of an estate 
he had left there in charitable uses. He was preparing to re- 
turn to Lerins when he was met by the deputies of the church 
of Troyes, which, upon the death of St. XJrsus, in 426, had 
chosen him bishop, the eighth from St. Amator, founder of thid 
see. His resistance was to no purpose, and he was consecrated 
by the prelates of the province of Sens. In this dignity he 
continued the same practices of humility, mortification, and as 
much as possible even of poverty. He never wore any other 
garments than a sackcloth and a single tunic, lay upon boards, 
and alloted every second night entire to watching in prayer. He 
often passed three days without taking any nourishment, and 
after so rigorous a fast allowed himself nothing but a little bar- 
ley bread. Thus he lived above twenty years ; labouring at 
the same time in all his pastoral functions with a zeal worthy 
an apostle. 

About the latter end of the fourth century, Pelagius, a 
British monk, and Gelestius a Scot, broached their heresy in 
Africa, Italy, and the East, denying the corruption of human 
nature by originid sin, and the necessity of divine grace. One 
Agricola, a disciple of these heresiarchs, had spread this poison 
in Britain. The Catholics addressed themselves to their neigh- 
bours the bishops of Gaul, begging their assistance to check the 
growing evil. An assembly of bishops, probably held at Aries 
in 429, deputed St. Germanus of Auxerre and St Lupus of 
Troyes, to go over into our island to oppose this mischief. The 
two holy pastors, burning witii zeal for the glory of Christ, ac- 
cepted the commission the more willingly as it seemed laborious 
and painful. They came over and entirely banished the heresy 
by their prayers, preaching, and miracles. St. Lupus, after his 
return, set himself with fresh vigour to reform the manners of 
his own flock. In this he displayed such great prudence and 
piety, that St. Sidonius Apollinaris calls him : " The father of 
fathers and bishop of bishops, the chief of the Gallican prelates, 
the rule of manners, the pillar of truth, the friend of God, and 



July 24.] st. lufus, b. c. 307 

the intercessor to him for men."(l) He spared no pains to save 
one lost sheep, and his labours were often crowned with a success 
which seemed miraculous. Among other instances it is recorded 
that a certain person of his diocess, named Gallos, had forsaken 
his wife and withdrawn to Clermont St. Lupus could not see 
this soul perish, but wrote to St. Sidonius, then bishop of Cler- 
mont, a strong letter so prudently tempered with sweetness, 
that Gallus by reading it was at once terrified and persuaded, 
and immediately set out to return to his wife. Upon which SU 
Sidonius cried out : '^ What is more wonderful than a single 
reprimand, which both affrights a sinner into compunction, and 
makes him love his censor !'' This letter of St. Lupus and 
several others are lost ; but we have one by which he congratu- 
lated Sidonius upon his promotion to his see, having passed 
from a secular prefecture or government to the • episcopacy, 
which charge he shows to be laborious^ difficult, and dangerous. 
He strongly exhorts him, above all things, to humility. This 
letter was written in 471, and is given us by D*Achery.(2) 

God at that time afflicted the western empire with grievous 
calamities, and Attila with a numberless army of Huns overran 
Gaul, calling himself, " The Scourge of God,** to punish the 
sins of the people. Rheims, Cambray, Besan^on, Auxerre, and 
Langres had already felt the effects of his fury, and Troyes was 
the next place threatened. The holy bishop had recourse to 
God in behalf of his people by fervent prayer, which he con- 
tinued for many days, prostrate on the ground, fasting and 
weeping without intermission. At length putting on his bishop's 
attire, full of confidence in God, he went out to meet the bar- 
barian at the head of his army. Attila, though an infidel, seeing 
him, was moved to reverence the man of God, who came up 
to him boldly, followed by his clergy in procession, with a cross 
carried before them. He spoke to the king first, and asked him 
who he was ? " I am," said Attila, " the scourge of God." " Let 
us respect whatever comes to us from God," replied the bishop ; 
" but if you are the scourge with which heaven chastises us, 
remember you are to do nothing but what that almighty hand, 
»rbich governs and moves you, permits." Attila, struck with 

1 B. Ci. cp. 1. . (2) Spicileg. t. 5, p. 5J0. 



308 ST. LUPUS, B. c» [July 24. 

theae words, promised thd prelate to spare the citj. Thus the 
saint's prajer was a better defence than the most impregnable 
ramparts. It protected a city which had neither arms, nor 
g:arrison, nor walls, against an army of at least four hundred 
thousand men, which, after plundering Thrace, Illyricum, and 
Greece, crossing the Rhine, had filled with blood and desola- 
tion the most flourishing countries of France. Attila, turning 
with his army from Troyes, was met on the plains of Chalons 
by Aetius, the brave Roman general, and there defeated. In 
his retreat he sent for St Lupus, and caused him to accompany 
him as far as the Rhine, imagining that the presence of so great 
a servant of Grod would be a safeguard to himself and his army : 
and sending him back he recommended himself to his prayers. 
This action of the good bishop was misconstrued by the Roman 
generals, as if he had favoured the escape of the barbarian, and 
he was obliged to leave «Troyes for two years. He spent that 
time in religious retirement, in great austerity and continual 
contemplation. When his charity and patience had at length 
overcome the envy and malice of men, he went back to bis 
church, which he governed fifty-two years, dying in the year 
479- The chief part of his body is kept in a rich silver shrine ; 
his skull and principal part of his head in another far more pre- 
cious, in the figure of a bishop, formed of silver, adorned with 
jewels and diamonds, said by some to be the richest in France. 
Both are in the abbatial church of regular canons of St. Austin, 
which bears the name of St. Lupus. He was first buried in the 
church of St. Martin in Areis, of the same Order, then out of 
the walls, though long since within them. Many churches in 
England bear his name. The family name of Sentlow among 
us is derived from St. Leu, as Camden remarks. 

It was by powerful prayer that the saints performed such 
great wonders. By it Moses could ward off the destruction of 
many thousands, and by a kind of holy violence disarm the di- 
vine vengeance.(l) By it Elias called down fire and rain from 
heaven. By it Manasses in chains found mercy, and recovered 
his throne ; Ezechias saw his health restored, and life prolonged : 
the Ninivites were preserved from destruction ; Daniel was de- 
livered from the lions, St. Peter from his chains, and St. Thecla 
(1) Exod. xxxii. 10. 



J ULY 24.] ST. FRANCIS SOLANO, C. 309 

from the fire. By it Judith and Esther saved God*s people. 
By the same have the servants of God so often commanded 
nature, defeated armies, removed mountains, cast out devils, 
cured the sick, raised the dead, drawn down divine blessings, 
and averted the most dreadful judgments from the world, 
which, as an ancient father says, subsists by the prayers of the 
fiaints.* 

ST. FRANCIS SOLANO, C. 

This saint was born at Montilia in Andalusia, in 1549, per- 
formed his studies in the schools of the Jesuits, and in 1569 
made his religious profession amongst the Franciscans in the 
place of his nativity. An extraordinary humility and contempt 
of himself and of worldly vanity and applause ; self-denial, obe- 
dience, meekness, patience, and the love of silence, recollec- 
tion, and prayer mental and vocal, formed his character. "Whole 
nights he frequently passed without sleep on the steps of the 
altar, before the Blessed Sacrament, in meditation and devout 
prayer, with wonderful interior delight and devotion. Burning 
with holy zeal and charity, and an ardent desire of the salva- 
tion of souls, after he was promoted to the priesthood, he di- 
vided his time between silent retirement and the ministry of 
preaching. His sermons, though destitute of the ornaments of 
studied eloquence, powerfully withdrew men from vicfe, and 
kindled in their breasts an ardent desire of virtue. The saint 
was appointed master of novices, first in the convent of Ari- 
zava, two miles from Cordova, afterwards in that of Monte. 
Then he was made guardian in the province of Granada. His 
whole life, says Alvarez de Paz, may be called a holy uninter- 
rupted course of zealous action, yet was at the same time a con« 
tinned most fervent prayer, abounding with heavenly illumina- 
tions and consolations. A perfect spirit of poverty emptied his 
heart of the love of all created things, that Christ alone might 
occupy and fill it ; and he rejoiced in his nakedness and priva- 
tion of earthly goods that he might barely use them to serve 
the necessities of nature, without suffering them to enslave his 
heart, or to find any place in his affections, which he reserved 
pure and entire for spiritual goods. Interior humility and self- 

** flanctorum precibus stat mundiu. Bufln. Fref. in Vitas Fdtnim. 



310 ST. FRANCIS 80ULNO, C. [JtnLT 24. 

denial perfected the disengagement of his heart, and the ex- 
traordinary austerities of his penitential life subjected his senses, 
and rendered the liberty which his soul enjoyed complete ; by 
which he was prepared for the spirit of prayer and the pure 
love of heayenly things. Earthly comforts used with mode- 
ration, and as supports of our weakness, may be sanctified by 
a good intention ; bnt whilst they bolster up our weakness, they 
keep it alive and strengthen it ; and if they are sought after, or 
made use of with eagerness and attachment, immoderately or 
frequently, they strongly nourish self-love and sensuality, and 
produce a distrust of the solid food of devotion and divine love. 
The mortified lives of all the saints who arrived at a fami- 
liarity with God in holy prayer, are but a comment upon, or 
sensible examples of, the indispensable gospel precept of dying* 
to ourselves. By no other steps could St. Francis Solano have 
arrived at the perfection of a spiritual life. A pestilence which 
raged at Oranada afforded him an opportunity of exerting his 
heroic virtue in attending the infected ; but a more noble theatre 
of action was opened to him by the mission into America, upon 
which he was sent. Peru and Tucuman were the countries in 
which he reaped the principal harvest : and the five last years 
of his life he preached chiefiy at Lima, and induced the inhabi- 
tants of that great city, by sincere repentance, to appease the 
divine anger, which they had provoked by their sins. The re- 
putation of his wonderful sanctity was enhanced by many mira- 
cles ; yet by humility he looked upon himself as the least among 
men, and he never appeared in public but when called abroad 
by zeal for the salvation of souls. Before his death he was 
purified by a lingering illness, and in his last moments re- 
peated those words of the psalmist : / have rejoiced in those 
things which have been said to me : We will go into the 
house of the Lord. He departed this life on the 14th of 
June in 1610, the sixty-second of his age, and fortieth of 
his religious profession. F. Alvarez de Paz, an eye-witness, 
describes the stately and religious pomp of his funeral, at 
which the viceroy of Peru and the archbishop of Lima as- 
sisted with extraordinary devotion. The saint was beatified by 
Clement X., and canonized by Benedict XIIL in 1726, and 
his principal festival appointed on the 24th of July. See his 



^CM 



July 24.J ss. somanus and david, mm. 311 

life compiled by Didacus of Cordova ; also by Alphonsus of 
Mondietta. See likewise the History of the Provinces of Peru, 
and the edifying account of our saint given by the pious and 
learned Jesuit F. Alvarez de Paz, 1, 5, c 14, t 2. Op. p. 1752 
and 1753 ; and Benedict XIV. De Canoniz. 1. 1, Append. Also 
the Lives of Saints, published in High Dutch, by F. Maximi- 
lian Rasler S. J. ; and F. Charlevoix, Hist, de Paraguay, t. 1, 
1. 3 and 4. 

SS. ROMANUS AND DAVID, MM., 

patrons op MUSCOVY.* 

The history of the conversion of the Russians (now called Mus- 
covites) to ihe faith of Christ, has been perplexed by the mia- 



* Some derive the pedigree and name of the MuscoTites from MoBoch, 
the son of Japhet, who, with his brothers Magog, Thubal, and Qomer, 
and their children peopled the northern kingdoms. (^Ezech. xxxrili. 6, 
&c.) These are reputed the patriarchs of the Cappadocians, Tartars, 
Scythians, Sarmatians, Ibc. See Bochart, Phaleg. 1. 3, c. 12. and 
Cidmet. It seems not to he doubted, that the Moschi, mentioned by 
Strabo and Mela, and situated between Colchis and Armenia, near the 
Moschid Montes, were the descendants of Mosoch. As the Scythians 
from the coasts of the Euzine and Caspian seas afterwards penetrated 
more northwards in Asia and Europe, and as the Cimmerii, who were 
the sons of Gomer, afterwards settled about the Bosphoms and Moootis, 
so some authors pretend that the.Moschi passed into Europe, and settled 
near them on the borders of the Scythians and Sarmatians. But the 
Muscovites evidently take their name from the city of Moscow, built 
about the year 1149, so called from a monasteiy named Moskoi (from 
Mus or Mnsik, men, q, d. the Seat of Men,) not from the river Moscow, 
which was anciently called Smorodina. (See J. S. Bayer, Orig. Rus- 
sic89, t. 8, Acad. Petrop. p. 390.) F(nr the name of Muscovites was not 
given to Ihis tribe of Russians before the beginning of the fourteenth 
century. It was assumed on the following occasion : In 1319, Gedimi. 
dius, great duke of Lithuania, having vanquished the Russian duke of 
Kiow, the archbishop Peter removed his see to Moscow, and from that 
town these Russians began then to be called Muscovites ; for the duke 
John, son of Daniel, soon followed the archbishop, and transferred 
thither the seat of his principality from Uladimiria : though the arch- 
bishop of Kiow continued to take the title of Metropolitan of all Russia. 
See Herbersteinius (Chorographia Priucipatus Ducis Moscovie ; also, in 
Rerum Muscovitarum Commentar,) and more accurately Ignatius 
Kulczynski, in Latin Kulcinius, a Basilian monk at Rome. (Specimen 
EcclesisB Ruthenicse, printed at Rome in 1733, also Catalog, archiepisc. 
Kioviensium; and Series Chronol. Magn. RuBsise sen Mosoovitt Bucum.) 
Hence the name of Muscovites first occurs in Chalcocondylus and other 
Greek historians about that time. We are informed by these authors, 
and by Herbersteinius, that these Russians were tributary to the Tartar 
king of Agora in Asia from 1 125 to 1506. But since they shook off that 



312 88. ROM ANUS AND DAVID, MM. [JCXY 24* 

takes of many who have treated this point of liistory. The 
learned Jesuit F. Antony Possevin was betrayed into many 
falsities concerning this people.(l) And upon his authority 
some have pretended that the Muscovites received the faith 

(1) Possev. If. I>e Rebus Moscoyiticis. 

yoke they have subdued the Bussians of Novogorod and other places in 
*EuroJ)e, and have extem^ed their dominions almost to the extremity of 
Asia in Great Tartary. See Bayer, Diss, de Bussorum prima expedit. 
ConstantinopoHtana, t. 6, Comm. Adad. Fetrop. et Orig. Bussiae, ib. t. 
6. Also Jos. Assemani, De Ealend. Univ. t. 1, par. 2, c. 4, p. 275. 

The name Rnssi or Bossi, seems not to be older than the ninth century. 
Cedrenus and Zonaras speak of them as a Scythian nation inhabiting the 
northern side of Mount Taurus, a southern region of Asiatic Scythia» 
now Great Tartary. They are a nation entirely distinct from the Boxolani, 
the ancient Sarmatians near the Tanais, though these Bussians afterwards 
became masters of that country, and took their name either from that of 
Boxolani abridged, or from Bosseia, which in their hmguage singnifies an 
assemblage of people. Constantino Forphyrogenetta tells us, that the 
language of the Bussians and Sclavonians was quite different ; and the 
monk Nestor, in the close of the eleventh century, the most ancient 
liistorian of Bussia, in his chronicle assures us, that the Bussians and 
Sclavonians are two different nations; biit the great affinity of the present 
Bussian language with the Sclavonian shows, that the Bussians, mixing 
with the Sclavonians, learned in a great measure their lang^uage. 

It is well known that, anciently, the southern parts of Muscovy were 
inhabited by Goth?, whom the Huns or ancient Tartars from Asia, ex- 
pelled in the fourth century. Also that the northern part was peopled by 
Scythians, whom the Muscovites still call by the same name Tscudi, t. e, 
Scythians, and the lake Feipus, Tschudzhoi. We learn from Gonstan- 
tine Forphyrogenetta (I. De administ. Imper. c. 9,) that the name of 
Bussia was given in the tenth century to the country of which Kiow was 
the capital, and which comprised also Czernigov, Novogorod, &c. Snorro 
Sturleson (Hist. regn. Septentr.t. 1, p. 6,) says these people called their 
ancient capital, situated towards the gulf o€ Finland, Aldeiguborg or 
Old-Town, in opposition to which Novogorod or New-Town, took its 
name. The Waregians, invited by the Bussians to defend them against 
the Ehosares, who lived near the Black or the Euxine Sea, crossing the 
Baltic, settled among the Bussians, it is uncertain in what age. See T. 
S. Bayer, de Varegis, t. 4. Comment. Acad. Scient. Fetrop. p. 275 — 
Er. Jul. Biaener, Sched. Hist. Geogr. de Varegis heroibus Scandinianis 
et primis Bussise Dynasts at Stockholm, 1743. Arvid. Mullens De 
Yaregia, 1731. Algol. Scarinus de Originibus prisce gentls Varegorum. 
1743. 

We know not in what age the Sclavonians obtained settlements in the 
northern parts of Bussia. They are first named in Frocopius and Jor- 
nandes, were part of the Venedi, and with them from Sormatia travelled 
into Germany ; where they settled for some time on the coast of the 
Baltic, afterwards in the centre of Germany near Thuringia, and in Beheim, 
or Bohemia, where they long ruled and left their language. In the reign of 
Justinian they crossed the Danube, and conquered part of Fannonia and 
niyricum, where a small territory, fifty German miles long, of which 
Feter-wandin is the most considerable place, between the Danube, the 



July 24.] sb» bomanus and david, mm. 313 

from the Greek schismatics, and at the same time adhered to 
their schism; than which, nothing can he more notoriously 
false, as Henschenius and Papehrochius(l) show. F. Stilting, 
another learned Bollandist, has demonstrated hy an express dis- 

(1) Prsef. ad Ephemer. Graeco-Moschas, n. 11, p. 3. 

Drare, and the Save, is still called Sclayonia : it was conquered by the 
kings of Hungary, and is still subject to the house of Austria. The 
Siavi fell everywhere into so miserable a servitude, that from them are 
derived the names of Slavei'y and Slaves. The Sclavonian language is 
used in the divine office in Illyricum, &c. according to the Latin rite ; 
in Muscovy, &c. according to the Greek rite. (See on SS. Cyril and 
Methodius, 22 Dec.) The Muscovites have no Russsian Bibles; but 
with very little study can understand the Sclavonian, says Brusching. 

In the year 892, Rurik, Sineus, and Tyuwor, three brothers from the 
Warengi on the other side of the Baltic, came by invitation into Russia, 
niid ruled the Sclirvonians and Russians united into one nation. ^ Rurik 
survived his brothers, and became sole sovereign. The Runic inscrip* 
tions in the northern Antiquities are not of an older date. 

Rurik fixed his seat near the lake Ladoga. His son Igor transferred 
his court from Novogorod to Kiow. His widow Olga received the faith, 
and was baptized at Constantinople. Their sqp Suatoslas died an ido. 
later ; but his son Wladimir the Great married Anne, a Grecian princess, 
received baptism, and was imitated by his subjects. He built the city 
which from him is called YHadimiria, which under his grandson, An- 
drew Bogolikski, became the ducal residence. Wladimir I. is honoure^^ 
ill the Muscovite Calendar. Kiow still has its dukes. Jaroslas, son of 
Wladimir, was succeeded there by his son Wsevolod I. in 1078, in whose 
reign Ephrem, metropolitan of Kiow, established in Russia, pursuant to 
the bull of Urban II. the feast of the translation of the relics of St. Ki- 
cholas to Bari, on the 9th of May never known in the Greek Church ; 
which shows their obedience to the pope, and their connexion with the 
J^atin Church. Tlie Greeks also were then Catholics. George duke of 
Russia at Wladimiria recovered Kiow, and in 1156 built the city of Mor. 
cow. Jaroslas II. succeeded his brother George II. in the great dukedom 
of Russia in 1238, and resided at Wladimiria. In his reign in 1244, the 
Kussians were reimited to the see of Rome, part having been a little be^ 
fore drawn into the Greek schism. His son Alexander, in his father's 
lifetime prince of Novogorod, with his brother Feodor or Theodor, gained 
great victories over the Tartars, who had long oppressed the Russians, 
and succeeded to the great dukedom in 1246. He is sumamed Newski or 
of Newa, from a great victory which he gained in 1241 on the banks of 
the Newa, over the Poles and the Teutonic knights in Livonia. Those 
knights who, by victories over the idolaters had made themselves masters 
of Livonia, had their own high master at Riga, who soon made himself 
independent of the grand-master of the same order in Prussia. This 
order, which was dismembered from the Knights Hospitallers, or of Jeru- 
salem, (afterwards of Rhodes and Malta,) to defend the Christians in 
Germany against the inroads of the barbarous northern infidel nations, 
long produced many incomparable great heroes, and models of all virtues. 
But enriched by great conquests, their successors, by pride, luxury, and 
continual intestine wars, gave occasion to several scandals. At length, 
4li>ert, Diarquis of Brandepburg, grand-master \n Prussia, turned {^^« 



314 S6. H0MANU8 AND DAVID, MM. [JCLT 24* 

ieriaiion,(l) that the Muscovites were at first Catholicdy and 
that even in the time of the council of Florence the Catholics 
and schismatics in Bussia made two equal halves. The Greek 

(2) Dissert, de Russoruiu Converaioiie et Fide apud Acta Sanctor. t. 
II, seu vol. 2, Septembris. i 



dieran, and reoeived firom the King of Poland the investitare of dncal 
Prussia. The knights expelled by him retired to Mariandhal in Fnm- 
conia, and there chose a new grand-master. He is chosen bj the twelve 
provincial commanders. William of Furstenburg, Heer.meister of Li. 
Tonia, also declared himself a Lutheran, and in 1559 resigned his dignity 
to Ms coadjutor Gotthard Kettler. He also being a Lutheran, ceded 
part of LdTonia to the Danes, and the chief part to the Poles, receiving 
from the latter the investiture of CourUmd and Samogitia as secular 
dukedoms ; Livonia fell under the power of Charles XI. of Sweden, but 
was added to the empire of Muscovy by Peter the Great. 

To return to the Grand Duke Alexander Newski, he received an em- 
bassy from the pope in 1262, the contents of which are not recorded. He 
died crowned with glory at Gorodes, near Nischui-Novogorod, in 1262, 
on the 30th of April, on which day his festival is kept in Muscovy, and 
he is honoured as one of the principal saints of the country. The tczar 
Peter the Great built, in his honour, a magnificent convent of Basilian 
monks on the banks of the Newa in Livonia, not far from his new city 
of Petersburg, the archbishop of which city resides in it. The Empress 
Catherine instituted, in 1725, the second Order of Knighthood in Russia 
under his name. Their daughter the Empress Elizabeth caused his bones 
to be put in . a rich shrine covered with thick plates of silver, placed at 
the foot of a magnificent mausoleum in this monastery. The Muscovites 
relate wonderfol things of h is em inent virtues, and miracles wrought at 
his tomb. Pope Benedict XTV. proves that, upon due authority, all 
this may be admitted even of one who had dieid in a material schism, er 
with inculpable ignorance. But this prince lived and died in communion 
with the see of Rome, though he has never been placed in the Calendars 
of the Catholic Church. 

Daniel, fourth son of Alexander, left by his father, Duke of Moscow, 
after the death of an uncle and three brothers became Grand Duke, and 
from his reign in 1304, Moscow became the ducal residence, till Peter I. 
gave a share in that honour to his new city of St. Petersburg. 

In the reign of Basil or Vasili U. in 1415, Photius, metropolitan of 
Russia, residing at Eiow, having espoused the Greek schism, was deposed 
by the council of Novogrodek, under the protection of Alexander Yit. 
hold, grand-duke of Lithuania. Retiring into Great Russia he there ex- 
ceedingly promoted the schism. Gregory, who succeeded him at Eiow, 
assisted at ^e council of Constance. Iwan or John IV. is the first who 
took the title of Tczar in 1552. This word in the Russian language sig. 
nifies king. In the Russian Chronicles that title is given to the Greek 
emperors. In their Bibles it is used for king, both in the Russian and 
Sclavonian language. 

In Feodor or Theodore ended, in 1598, the race of Rurik. After two 
others who had been chief ministers and two false Demetriuses, in 1613, 
Michael, of the family of Romanow, allied to that of the preceding tczars, 
was chosen great duke. The third of this family was Peter the Great, 
founder of the Russian empire. 



JtTLT 24.] 88. ROMANUS AlfD DAVID, MM. 315 

schism was formed by Gerularius several years after the con- 
version of the Russians. The schism indeed of Photius was a 
short prelude to it. 

Cedrenus, Zonaras, and some others relate, that an army of 
Russians besieged Constantinople in the time of the Emperor 
Michael HI., when Photius held that see; and that being 
obliged to raise the siege they obtained certain Greek priests 
from Constantinople, who instructed them in the Christian faith. 
This first mission Baronius places in 853, Pagi in 861 ; but this 
must either be understood of some tribe of Russians in Bohe- 
mia, where St. Cyril then preached ; or these authors must have 
confounded together things which happened at different times ; 
for the Emperor Constantine Porphyrogenetta, who lived near 
that time, and could not but be acquainted with this transac- 
tion, says both in his life of his grandfather, Basil the Mace- 
donian, and in his book, On administering the Empire, that 
the Russians besieged the city in the time of Photius, but that 
they were converted to the faith by priests sent at their request . 
from Constantinople in the time of Basil the Macedonian and 
the patriarch St. Ignatius, whom that prince restored upon his 
ascending the throne in 867 ; which also appears from Zonaras. 

The first plant of the faith in this nation was the holy Queen 
Helen, called before her baptism Olga. She was wife to the 
Duke Ihor or Igor, who undertook an expedition against the 
city of Constantinople, as Simeon Metaphrastes, the monk 
George, Cedrenus, Zonaras, and Curopalates relate. Having 
been repulsed by the generals of the Emperors Romanus and 
Constantine, he was slain by the Dreulans in his return. His 
widow Olga, with great valour and conduct revenged his death, 
vanquished the Dreulans, and governed the state several years 
with unconunon prudence and courage. When she was almost 
seventy years old she resigned the government to her son Sua- 
toslas, and going to Constantinople was there baptized, taking 
the name of Helen.* Many place this event in 952, which date 



• Constantine Porphyrogenetta succeeded Leo the Wise in the empire 
in 911 ; in 919, he associated in the throne his Brungar, or Admiral Ro- 
manus Lecapenus, whose daughter, Helena, he had married. Romanua 
reigned to the year 944 ; from which time his covetous daughter, Helena, 
had a great share in goyeming the empire. Constsptine was buried in 



nL6 38. BOMANUS AND DAVID, MM. [^JVJLX :24. 

soems most agreeable to the Greek historians ; bnt Ka1ciiiiu5 
and Stiltiiig infer from the chronology of the dukes of Russia, 
that she seems to have been baptized in 945. We are expresslv 
assured hy Constantine Forph3rrogenetta that it happened in 
946. She returned into her own country, and bj her zealous 
endeavours brought many to the faith ; but was nerer able to 
compass the conversion of her son, who was probably withheld 
by reasons of state. She died in 970 or 978. Her grandson 
Cladimir, who succeeded Suato^las, asked by a solemn em^ 
ba<^, and obtained in marriage Anne, sister to the two em- 
perors Basil and his colleague and brother Constantine. Nicholas 
Chrysoberga, the orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, a person 
always zealous in maintaining the communion of the see of 
Rome, at that prince's request, sent into Muscovy one Michael 
with other preachers, who baptized Cladimir, and married him 
to the princess about tne year 988.(1) This duke founded near 
Kiow the great monastery of the Cryptae in favour of the abbot 
• St Antony, and died, according to Kulcinius, in 1008. His 
two sons, SS. Boris and Hliba or Cliba, called in Latin Roma* 
nus and David, were murdered by the usurper Suatopelch, 
llieir impious brother, in 1010. It was their zeal for the faith 
of Christ which gave occasion to their death. Jaroslas, another 
brother, defeated the usurper, and obtained the principality ; 

(1) See the Annals of the Russians in Hebersteinias, in Remm Af«s- 
covit. Comment, and Jos. Assemani, in Calecd. Univ. t. 2, p. 265, and 
t. 3. 

his studies, and djing in 959, fif^-fonr years old, left the empire to his 
impious son, Bomanus 11., who is said to have poisoned him, and who 
died in 963, leaving the empire to Nioephoms Fhocas, his valiant gene- 
ral, who had often defeated the Russians and Saracens. His daughter, 
Anne, was married to Wladimir, duke of Russia. Constantine Porphy- 
rogenetta (1. de Ccem. Ante Byzant. 1. 2, c 15,) relates, that on Wed- 
nesday, the 9th of September, 9jl6, Olga, princess of Russia, was re- 
ef ired with great pomp at Constantinople by Constantine (himself) and 
Romanus, emperors ; and describes her different receptions at their court, 
the banquets which they prepared for her, the presents in monej which 
bey made to her uncle of thirty niiiiaretia, (each of which contained two 
/eratia, each ceratium tweWe foUes, of which five hundred made a pound 
of silver,) eight to her priest, Gregory, and to each of her friends, to 
herself ire hundred miliaretia, in a gold dish studded with diamonds and 
precious stones. At each other entertainment like presents were dis- 
tributed. Tlie dessert of sweet-meats was served on i^ little gold tabl^, 
JE dishes mode of, or studded with, precious stones. 



July 24.] ss. bom anus Ain> david, bim. 317 

his daughter Anne was married to Henry I., king of France^ 
In 1044, and became the foundress of the church of St. Vin- 
cent at Senlis. Bomanus and David are honoured in Muscovy 
on the 24th of July. Their remains were translated into a 
church which was built in their honour at Vislegorod in 1072, 
the ceremony being performed with great pomp, by George, the 
fifth archbishop of Kiow, and several other bishops, in presence 
of Iza^las, Suatoslas, and Usevolod, princes of Russia, and a 
great train of noblemen. The synod of Zamoski, in 1720, 
which was approved by the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, 
and confirmed by Pope Benedict XIIL, reckons among the holi- 
days of precept which are kept by the Catholic Russians in Li- 
thuania and other provinces, the feast of these two martyrs, 
celebrated on the 24th of July, and that of the translation of 
their relics on the 2d of May.(l) 

The Catholic Russians in Lithuania and Poland keep no fes- 
ttval of any other Muscovite saints except of these two martyrs.* 

(1) Sjn. Zamosciania, tit. de Jejun. et Fest. p. 121. Jos. Assemani, 
de Calend. Univ. t. 4, p. 65, t. 6, p. 497. 

* The United Eussians, who, renouncing the schism, embraced the 
communion of the Roman Church, are chiefly subject to Poland, and 
ever since Clement YIII. have a metropolitan of Kiow, (since Kiow was 
conquered by the.. Muscovites these have established there their schism 
with a metropolitan of their communion,) an archbishop of Flosco, and 
bishops of Kelma, Presmilia, Liceoria, and Leopold, with several con- 
vents of Basilian monks, who all follow the Greek rites ; though several 
Russians in the Polish dominions still adhere to the Greek schism. See 
Urban Cerri's (secretary to the Propaganda) Relation, p. 56, and Mama- 
chi, Orig. et Antiquit. Christ. 1. 2, c. 17, t. 2, p. 180. Papebroke, Not. 
in Ephemer. Grsec. Mosch. t. 1, Maij Bollandiani, p. 54, &c. 

The metropolitan of Moscow was declared patriarch of all the Russian 
schismatics by Jeremy, patriarch of Constantinople, in 1588, and was 
acknowledged in that character by the other oriental patriarchs. But 
the Czar, Peter I. having learned, from the experience of above a hun- 
dred years, that the patriarchs made use of their great influence and 
authority in matters of state, after that dignity had been vacant nineteen 
years, caused it to be abolished, and an archbishc^ of Moscow to be 
chosen in 1719. For the government of the church of Muscovy, and re- 
ceiving apx>eals, he appointed a council of eleven bishops and other clergy, 
men, the president of which the Czar nominates. See John Von Strah- 
lenburg (Historical and Geographical Description of Russia and Siberia, 
an. 1738,) and Le Quien. (Oriens Christianus, t. 1, p. 1296.) Some 
Catholics enjoy the exercise of their religion in several parts of Muscovy. 
Kilcinius observes that many saints have flourished in this nation since 
it has been engaged in schism. Fossevinus and Papebroke take notice 
that the Greeks, since their scbiani, Have been reunited to the liatin 

\UL, Vli. X 



318 8S. roma:«us axd pavid, mm. [JnL.T 24. 

But the Mascovites honour several other saints of their own 
country ; several among whom flourished, and doubtless were 
placed bj them in their Calendar before their schism, as Pape- 
broke and Jos. Assemani observe. Such as the queen Helen 
or Olga, on the 1 1th of Julj, who died, according to Kulcinius, 
in 978. Uladimir, her grandson, duke of the Russians, and 
son of Suatoslas on the 15th of July, who was baptized in 990, 
died in 1014, and was buried in our Lady's church ai Sjow.(I) 
Antony, abbot, a native of Ku&o>**, who embraced the monastic 
fktate upon Mount Atho^, and returning to Eaow, became the 
patriarch of that Order in his own country, and on a mountaiu 
half a mile from the tovm founded, about the year 1020, the 
great Russian monastery of Fieczari or the Cryptae, in which 
the archimandrite of all the Russian monks resides, and the 
archbishop of Kiow has an apartment. Antony died in 1 073, 
on the 10th of July, on which his festival is kept in Muscoiry.(2) 
This monastery is famous for the Cryptae or vaults, in which 
the bodies of many saints and monks who lived above six hun-i 
dred years ago, remain unoorrupted and fresh. Agapetus, dis- 
ciple of Antony, at the Cryptae, famous for miracles, honoured 
on the 1st of June. Athanasius, monk at the Cryptae, on the 
2nd of December ; he was a native of Trabesond, who, by the 
liberality and protection of the emperor Nicephorus Phocas, 
founded the great monastery on Mount Athos in Macedonia. 
He is honoured by the Greeks and Muscovites on the 6th of 
July.(3) The lives of these and several other iincient monks 
of this house were written by Polycarp, who died in 1 182. The 

(1) See Jos. Assemani' in Calend. t. 6. p. 480, on the 15th of July, et 
t. 4, p. 34 to 52. 

(2) See Jos. Assemani in Calend. p. 471, t. 6, ad 10 Julij. 

(3) Id. ad 5 Julij, p. 402, et t. I, pp. 21, 29. 

Church fourteen times. The latter of these learned authors also remarks, 
that even when the archbishops were most turbulent schismatics, no one 
will say that all the people were involved in the same guilt ; even igno. 
ranee might excuse many, as Baronius answered, with regard to monks 
who lived under a schismatical abbot, (ad an. 1036.^ As for Polish 
Russia, F. Eulesza, a learned Polish Jesuit, in a b<)ok entitled. Fides 
Orthodoxa, printed at Yilna, assures us, that all the arclibishops of Kiow 
have been Catholics, except two, Fbotius and Jonas II. till, in I6861, it 
was given up to the Mu8CK)vites. By the intrigues of this Photins, in 
the middle of the' fifteenth century, the Groek schism u:as propeg^ited 
tbruugh all Muscovy. 



July 24.] ss. wulphad, &c., mm B19 

grand duke Alexander, sumamed Newski, who died in 12f)2, 
and is honoured on the 30th of April. Sergius, an abbot, is 
honoured bj the Muscovites on the 25th of September. He 
died in 1292, and was never involved in the schism, as Pape- 
broke, Kulcinius, and Jos. Assemani show. This Sergius was 
bom at Boslow, founded the monastery of the Holy Trinity at 
Rudosno, (sixty Italian miles from Moscow,) the richest and 
most numerous in Muscovy, in which are sometimes two or 
three hundred monks. The body of Sergius is kept there in- 
corrupt, and is much visited out of devotion from Moscow, 
sometimes by the Czars. These and several others who are 
named in the Muscovite Calendar with the most eminent saints 
of the eastern and western churches, lived either before or when 
this nation was not engaged in the Greek schism. But to these 
saints the Muscovites add some few who died since their separa- 
tion from the Catholic communion, as Photius, archbishop of 
Kiow, whose principal merit consisted in the obstinacy with 
which he maintained the schism. See Kulcinius, Specimen 
EcclesisB Ruthenicae; Papebroke in the beginning of May, 
Comm. in Ephem. Jos. Assemani, in Calend. Univ. ad 25 Sept. 
t. 5. p. 254, &c. 

ST. CHRISTINA, V. M. 

She suffered many torments, and a cruel death, for the faith in 
the persecution of Dioclesian, at Tyro, a city which stood for- 
merly in an island in the lake of Bolsena in Tuscany, but has 
been long since swallowed up by the waters. Her relics are now 
at Palermo in Sicily. She is much honoured both in the Latin 
and Greek church, and is named in the Martyrologies which 
bear the name of St. Jerom, that of Bede augmented by Floras, 
and others. See Ughelli, Italia Saci-a, t. 5. and Pinius the Bol- 
landist, t. 5. Jullij, p. 495. 

SS. WULFHAD AND RUFFIN, MM. 

Thet were two brothers, the sons of Wulfere, the king of 
Mercia, second brother and successor of Peada. Having been 
privately baptized by St. Chad, bishop of Litchfield, about the 
year 6 70, they were both slain whilst they were at their prayers 



320 «T. LSWIlfE. [Jui-T 24. 

by their fatbei^s order, who, out of political views, at that tinae 
fayonred idolatry, though he afterwards did remarkable penance 
for this crime. EUs father Penda had persecuted the Christians ; 
but his elder brother Peada had begun to establish the faith in 
his dominions. Florence of Worcester says, Wulfere was only 
baptized a little before his death, in 675, consequently after this 
murder ; but Bade testifies that he was godfather to Edelwa!f«b, 
king of the West-Saxons, almost twenty years before. But 
either he relapsed, (at least so far as to be for some time favour- 
able to idolatry,) or this murder was contriTed, by some Pagan 
courtiers, without his privity, as Bradshaw rektes it. The 
queen Emmelinda, mother of the two young princes, caused 
their bodies to be buried at Stone, which place took its name 
from a great heap of stones which was raised over their tomb, 
according to the Saxon custom. She afterwards employed these 
stones in building a church upon the spot, which became very 
famous for bearing the names of these martyrs who were patrons 
of the town, and of a priory of regular canons there. The pro- 
curator of this house, in a journey to Rome, prevailed on the 
pope to enrol these two royal martyrs among the saints, and left 
the head of St. Wulf had, which he had carried with him, in the 
church of St. Laurence at Viterbo. (Leland, Collect, t. 1. p. 1. 
2.) After this, Wulfere and his brother and successor Ethelred, 
abolished idols over all Mercia. See the acts of these royal 
martyrs in the History of Peterborough abbey, and Leland'a 
Itinerary and Collect, t. 1. p. 1. Also Cuper the BoUandist, 
t. 6. Julij. p. 571. 

ST. LEWINE 

Was a British virgin, who suffered martyrdom under the Saxons 
before their conversion to the faith. Her body was honourably 
kept at Seaford near Lewes in Sussex, till, in 1058, her remains, 
with those of St. Idaberga, virgin, and part^ of those of St. 
Oswald, were conveyed into Flanders, and are now deposited 
in St. Winock's abbey at Bei^. They have been honoured by 
many miracles, especially at the time of this translation, as even 
the century-writers of Magdeburg mention. A history of these * 
miracles, written bj Drogo, an eye-witness to several,, is pub- 



JUT.T 25.J 83^ BABIES THE GREAT, APOSTUB. 321. 

limbed by Solier tbe Bollandist, p. 608. t. 5. JoL See alao 
Alford in AnnaL ad an. 687* n. 21* 

ST. DECLAN, 

FIRST BISHOP OF ARDMORE IN IRELAND, 

Was baptized by St. Colman, and preacbed tLe faitb in that 
country a little before tbe arrival of St. Patrick, who confirmed 
the episcopal see of Ardmore, in a synod at Cashel in 448,* 
Many miracles are ascribed to St. Declan, and he has ever been 
much honoured in the viscounty of Dessee, anciently NandesL 
See Usher ; Bosch the BoUandist, p. 590, and Colgan in MSS. 
ad 24 Julij. 

ST. KINGA, OR CUNEGUNDES. 

She was daughter of Bela IV, king of Hungary, and Mary, 
daughter to Theodoras Lascharis, emperor of Coustatitinople : 
was married in 1239 to Boleslas the Chaste, sovereign of Lesser 
Poland, or of the palatinates of Cracow, Sandomire, and Lublin ; 
but by mutual consent lived in perpetual chastity. Prayer, 
mortification, alms, and daily attendance on the poor in the boa* 
pitals, employed her time. Boleslas dying in 1279, she took 
the veil in the great monastery of Sandecz, which she had lately 
built for nuns of the Order of St Clare. She died on the 24th 
of July in 1292. She was venerated with singular piety in the 
diocess of Cracow and several other parts of Poland, and her 
name was solemnly inscribed among the saints by Alexander 
VIIL in 1690. See her life by John Longinus commonly 
called Dlugos, with remarks by Bosch the Bollandist, 1 5. Julij. 
p. 661. 



JULY XXV. 

ST. JAMES THE GREAT, APOSTLE. 

St. James, the brother of St. John Evangelist, son of Zebe- 
dee and Salome, and nearly related to Christ, was called tha 

^ Ardmore (so called tram its situation on an eminence) stands on the 
bb& coast, not fiur firbm the mouth o! the river now called Broad-water ox 



822 9r. JAMS8 THB GREAT, AFOSTUL ['JULT' 25. 

Great to distingiiish him from the other apostle of the same 
name who was bishop of Jerusalem, and is somamed the Jjg^ 
perhaps because he was lower in stature, or more probablj- be- 
cause he was the younger. St. James the Great seems to havo 
been bom about twelve jears befmre Christ, and was many 
years older than his brother St. John. Salome is otherwise 
called Mary, and was sister to the Blessed Virgin, which some 
take in the strict sense of the word ; others understand by it 
only cousin-german, according to the Hebrew phrase, and think 
the Blessed Virgin was an only daughter. 

St. James was by birth a Galilean, and by profession it 
fisherman with his father and brother, living probably at Beth- 
saida, where St. Peter also dwelt at that time. Jesus walking 
by the lake of Genesareth saw St. Peter and St. Andrew fish- 
ing, and he called them to come after him, promising to make 
them fishers of men. Going on a little farther on he shore, 
he saw two other brothers, James and John, in a ship, with 
Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he also called 
them ; who forthwith left their nets and their father and fol- 
lowed him.(l) Probably by conversing with St Peter their 
townsman, and by other means, they had before this call an 
entire conviction that Jesus was the Christ ; and no sooner did 
they hear his invitation, and saw the marks of his divine will 
directing them to what was eminently conducive to his honour, 
but the same moment they quitted all things to comply with 
this summons. They held no consultation, made no demur, 
started no difficulties, thought of no consequences or dangers ; 
and their sacrifice was most perfect and entire. Like Abra- 
ham, they preferred obedience to the divine command, before 
all the endearments, of their nearest relations, and forsook all 
they had, and all their hopes and prospects in the world, to 
beoome the disciples of Jesus. Zebedee their father seems to 
have approved of their resolution, and their mother Salome 
devoted herself heartily to the service of our Lord, as the 

(1) Matt. It. 22. 



Black.waler. The tee was united to that qf Lismore after the arm'al of 
the Ensrlish in iielaod ; and this again to Waterford. See St. Cartha^'s 
m, 1401 May. 



July 25.] st. james the orbat, apostle, 323 

gospels frequently mention. All fervent souls ought to be in 
the like dispositions of perfect sacrifice with these apostles, 
without the least inordinate attachment to anything on earth, 
being most ready to renounce every thing if God's greater 
glory should require it With what boundless liberality does 
the Divine Spirit shower down his choicest treasures upon souls 
which thus perfectly open themselves to him ? This the apostles, 
of whom we speak, happily experienced in themselves ; but they 
for some time so followed Christ, and listened to his divine 
instructions, as still to return from time to time to their fishing 
trade for a maintenance. It was in the same first year of 
Christ's preaching that Peter and Andrew, at the command of 
their divine Master, took a prodigious shoal of fishiss by a 
miraculous draught. James and John were their partners, 
though in another boat, and were called in to assist in hauling 
up the nets. Astonished at this manifestation of Christ's 
power, they entirely quitted their business, the more perfectly 
to attach themselves to him.(l) 

In the year 31. St. James was present with his brothers St. 
John and St. Peter, at the cure of St. Peter's mother-in-law,- 
and at the raising of the daughter of Jairus from the dead. 
This same year Jesus formed the college of his apostles, into 
which he adopted St. James and his brother St. John. He 
gave these two the surname of Boanerges, or Sons of Thunder, 
probably to denote their active zeaL When a town of the 
Samaritans refused to entertain Christ, they suggested that he 
should call down fire from heaven to consume it; but our 
Blessed Redeemer gave them to understand that meekness and 
patience were the arms by which they were to conquer.(2) 
Christ distinguished St. Peter, St. James, and St. John by 
many special favours above the rest of the apostles. They 
alone were admitted to be spectators first of his glorious trans- 
figuration, and afterwards of his agony and bloody sweat in the 
garden. The instructions and example of the Son of God had 
not fully enlightened the understandings of these apostles, nor 
purified their hearts, before the Holy Ghost had shed his beams 
upon them ; and their virtue was still imperfect, as appeared in 
the following instance : — ^Mary Salome the mother of James 
CI) Luke r. 1 1. (2) Luke ix. 



324 ST. JAMES THB OBEAT, APOSTI«E, C«^ULT 25. 

and John, relying upon their merit, and her relation to Clirist» 
and imagining that he was going to erect a temporal monarchy, 
according to the notion of the carnal Jews concerning the 
Messias, presented to him a request that her two sons might 
sit, the one on his right hand and the other on his left, in his 
kingdom. By this example we are put in mind how often the 
fondness of parents renders them the spiritual murderers of 
their own children, and makes them blindljy excuse, flatter, and 
encourage their secret vices and passions. At the same time 
we are taught how formidable an enemy ambition is, which 
could find admittance in the breasts of two apostles (though yet 
novices) before the descent of the Holy Ghost. They, doubt- 
less, disguised their vice under the cloak of a reasonable desire, 
and a virtuous emulation of preferment, with a design of serv- 
ing their Master by it. Only the children of Hght discover the 
deceit and snare of this enemy ; only profound humility dis- 
cerns and condemns the specious pretences of subtle pride and 
covetousness. The two sons of Zebedee seem to have spoken 
by the mouth of their mother ; wherefore Christ directed his 
answer to them, telling them, they knew not what they asked ;. 
for in his kingdom preferments are attainable, not by the most 
forward and ambitious, but by the most humble, the most 
laborious, and the most patient He therefore asked them if 
they were able to drink of his cup of suffering? The two 
apostles understanding the condition under which Christ offered 
them his kingdom, and glowing with ardour and courage to 
suffer, answered peremptorily, they were able to do it. Our 
Lord told them, they should indeed have their portions of 
suffering ; but for the honours of his kingdom, he could make 
no other disposal of them than according to his decrees in con- 
junction with his Father, in proportion to every one's charity 
and patience in suffering. 

The virtue of the most fervent novices in the service of God 
is very imperfect, so long as entire self-denial, and a great 
assiduity and spirit of prayer have not yet prepared their sonla 
for, and called down upon them a plentiful efftwion of the Holy 
Choat^ who fills their understanding with a clear and new 
heavenly light, and by the ardour of his charity consumes the 
rust of the affections, and fills them with his fervour. In thia 



JUL7 25.^1 3T. JAMES THE GKEAT, AFOSTL£« 325 

State even the moral virtues acquire an heroic aiid infused 
degree of perfection. Humility now gives the soul a much 
more clear and feeling knowledge of her own infirmities, base- 
ness, and imperfections, with much stronger sentiments of a 
just contempt of herself; and the like is to be said of divine 
and fraternal charity, and all other virtues ; so that she seema 
to herself translated into a region of new light, in which, by 
continual heroic acts of these virtues, and especially of prayer 
and contemplation, she makes daily and wonderful advances. 
This perfection the apostles received in a more miraculous 
manner by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them, when he 
not only engraved the law of love deeply in their hearts, but 
also bestowed on them the external graces and gifts of prophecy 
and miracles, and qualified them for the execution of the great ' 
commission they had received from Christ. 

How St. James was employed in preaching and promoting 
the gospel after Christ^s ascension, we have no account from 
the writers of the first ages of Christianity. It appears that he 
left Judaea some time after the persecution that was raised at 
the martyrdom of St. Stephen in the year 30, and was returned 
again ten years after when he suffered martyrdom. The ad- 
dition to St. Jerom's catalogue of illustrious men tells us, that 
he preached the gospel to the twelve tribes of the Jews, in 
their dispersion up and down the world. Though the apostles, 
during the first twelve years preached generally in the neigh- 
bourhood of Judaea, yet St. James might in that interval make 
a voyage to Spain, and preach some time in that country, as 
Baronius observes. F. Cuper adds, that his martyrdom hap- 
pened above a year after the dispersion of the apostles, in 
which space he had the fairest opportunity of visiting Spain. 
That he preached there, is constantly affirmed by the tradition 
of that church, mentioned by St. Isidore, the Breviary of 
f oledo, the Arabic books of Anastasius patriarch of Antioch^ 
concerning the Passions of the martyrs and others. Cuper the 
Bollaiiiist,(l) traces this tradition very high,' and confirms it 

(1) Julij, t. 6, p. 69. See on the same the learned F. Flares, in his 
Xspana Sagrada, t. 3, c. 3, de la Predicacion de San Jago in Espana, p. 
39, and his answers to F. Mamachi, the Boman Dominican, prefixed to 
his sixth tome. The mission of St. James in Spain is defended at large by 
the learned Jesuit F. Farlat, Blyrici SocriFrolei^m. part. 3, 1. 1, p. 252. 



S26 «T. JAMES THE GREAT, APOSTLE. f JuLT 25, 

from St. Jeroin,(l) St Isidore, the ancient Spanish office, &c.» 
and from manj corroborating circumstances. St. Epiphanios 
sajs, that St James always lived a bachelor, in much tempe- 
rance and mortification, never eating flesh nor fish ; that he 
wore only one coat, and a linen cloak, and that he was holj 
and exemplary in all manner of conversation. He was the 
first among the apostles who had the honour to follow his di- 
vine master by martyrdom, which he suffered at Jerusalem, 
whither he was returned, in the eleventh year after our Lord's 
ascension* 

Agrippa, the grandson of Herod, by Aristobulus, was author 
of this persecution. Being brought up at Rome in the reign 
of Tiberius, he, basely flattering Caligula in his passions, 
gained the confidence of tLat monster, who was no sooner 
placed on the imperial throne than he gave Agrippa the title of 
king, with the tetrarchies of Philip and Lysanias, which were 
iben vacant* Claudius, in the year 41, enlarged his do- 
minions, giving him also Jerusalem and all the rest of Judsea, 
Samaria, and whatever other provinces had been possessed by 
his grandfather Herod. He gave also to his younger brother 
Herod the little kingdom of Chalcis in Syria, near mount 
tiibanus. Agrippa reigned with great state and magnificence. 
Being very fond of pleasing the Jewish nation, when he came 
from CsBsarea to Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the year 
43, he began to persecute the Christians ; and the first who fell 
a victim to his popular zeal was St. James the Grreat, whom he 

See alflo Card. d'Ajruirre, t. 1, Cone, Hisp. p. 140, upon the words of St. 
Jerom in Isaias c. 34, p. 279, t. 3. 

(1) Diss, de Dlvisione Apost. ante t. 4, Julij, et in vita S. Jacob!, t. 
6. p. 71. 

• Agrippa the Elder was a worldly man, addicted to pleasures, yet 
attached to the Jewish religion. Of this he gave a remarkable proof 
when the Emperor Caligula ordered a statue of Jupiter to be set up in 
the temple of Jerusalem. The Jews opposed the attempt with tears and 
remonstrances, and.throwing themselves prostrate on the ground at the 
feet of the Roman governor, protested they were ready rather to suffer 
death. But the murderers of the Son of God were unworthy to die la 
80 good a cause. Agripi>a exposed himself to the danger of losing the 
tyrant's fiivour, and by a strong letter, which he wrote to him on that 
occasion, obtained that the order should be superseded at that time. 
When that emperor was attempting to renew it, his death delivered tUd ■ 
Jews from the danger. 



July 25.] st. james the great, apostle. 327 

caused to be apprehended and beheaded there a little before 
Easter, in the year 43, about fourteen years after the death of 
Christ. Clement of Alexandria, and from him Eusebiu8,(l) 
relate that his accuser, observing the great courage and con- 
stancy of mind wherewith the apostle underwent his trial, was 
so affected with it, that he repented of what he had done, de- 
clared himself publicly a Christian, and was condemned to be 
beheaded with St. James. As they were both led together to 
execution, he begged pardon of the apostle by the way for hav- 
ing apprehended him. St James, after pausing a little, turned 
to him, and embraced him^ saying, Peace he with you. He 
then kissed him, and they were both beheaded together.* The 

(1) Eus. Hist. 1. 2, c. 9. 



* Agrippa was the first prince that persecuted the church. After 
having put to death St. James, he imprisoned St. Peter, but God deli- 
vered him out of the persecutor's hands. Nor was it long before this 
king felt the effects of divine vengeance. After the feast of the passover 
he returned to Caesarea to exhibit there public games in honour of Clau- 
dius Caesar, and was attended thither with a numerous train of the most 
considerable persons, both of his own and of the neighbouring nations. 
He appeared early on the second morning of the shows at the theatre, I2 
a costly robe of silver tissue, artfully wrought, and so bright that the 
sunbeams which dart^ upon it were reflect^ with such an uncommon 
lustre, as to dazzle the eyes of the spectators who beheld him with a kind 
of divine respect. He addressed himself, in an elegant speech, to the de- 
puties of the Tynans and Sidonians, who were come to beg his pardon 
for some offence for which they had been some time in disgrace with him. 
Whilst he spoke, the ambassadors and some court sycophants gave a great 
sViout, crying out that it was the voice of a god and not of a man. The 
king, too sensible of the people's praise, and elated with pride, seemed 
to forget himself, and to approve instead of checking the impious flat- 
tery. But at that instant the angel of the Lord smote him with a dread 
ful disease, and he felt himself seized with a violent pain in his bowela. 
Perceiving his distemper to be mortal, he rejected the flattery of his syco- 
phants, telling them tiiat he whom they called immortal was dying. Tet 
still full of false ideas of human grandeur, though he saw death inevita- 
ble, he comforted himself with the remembrance of the splendour in 
which he had lived. So true it is, that a man dies such as he lives. 
After lingering five days in exquisite torments, under which no remedy 
gave him any ease, being eaten up by worms, he expired in all the mise- 
ries that can be expressed or imagined. This account is given us by Jo- 
sephus (Antiq. 1. 19, c. 7,) and by St. Luke, i^Acts xii. 23.) He died 
in the fifty-fourth year of his age, and the seventh of his reign. The 
iiu>8t learned Mr. Stukely, in his medallic history of CarasiuB, (t. 2, 
c. I, p. 72,) will have it that Agrippa was smslten four days after he 
celebrated the Roman festival, in which the people made vows for the 
emperor's health and safety, marked m the ancient Roman Calendar 



A28 ST. JAMES TBS GREAT, AP08TUB. [Jui^lT 25. 

body of the apostle was interred at Jerusalem s bat not long 
9£tesr carried by his disciples into Spain, and deposited at Iria 
Flavia, now caUed £1 Padron, upon the borders of Gallicia. 
The sacred relics were discovered there in the beginning of tho 
ninth centnry/in the reign of Alphonsus the Chaste, king of 
Leon. By tiie order of that prince they were translated to 
Gompostella, four miles distant, to which place Pope Leo III^ 
transferred the episcopal see from Iria Flavia. This place was 
first called Ad. S. Jacobum Apostolum, or Giacomo Postolo, 
^ which words have been contracted into the present name, 

fl^' 'O Jt(i> Gompostella. It is famous for the extraordinary concourse of 
• . '»/^^^ pilgrims who resort thither to visit the body of St. James, 

• ^ ' ^'Ak which is kept with great respect in the stately cathedraL F. 
w ^ *"^ ; Cuper the BoUandist proves the truth of the tradition of the 
Spanish church concerning the body of St James having been 
translated to Compostella, and gives authentic histories of many 
miracles wrought through his intercession, and of several ap- 
paritions by which he visibly protected the armies of the 
Christians against the Moors in that kingdom.* The military 
order of St. James, surnamed the Noble, was instituted by 
Ferdinand II., in 1175. 

The church, by the martyrdom of St James, lost in her in- 
fancy one of her main pillars ; but God was pleased that his 
name should be glorified by so illustrious a testimony, and that 
it should appear he was the immediate supporter and defender 
of his church. For when it was deprived of its chief members 
and pastors, it remained no less firm than before ; and even 
grew and gathered strength from the most violent persecutions. 

which he has published on the 4th of January. It was, indeed, the fes. 
tiyal of the Emperor Claudius, but after the passover, which, happened 
that year on the 10th of April, the equinoctial new moon falling on the 
28th of Bfarch. Herod Agrippa left a son of his own name, who was 
then at Borne with Claudius, only seTenteen years old. The empeior 
would willingly have given him his &ther's dominions ; but his freemen 
and counsellors represented to him that an extensive kingdom was too 
great a burthen for so younar a prince to bear. Whereupon Judaea war 
again reduced into the form of a Roman province, and Cuspius Fadu» 
appointed the first prefect or governor. 

* See on the Translation of the Body of St. James to Compostella, F. 
Flores, the learned and inquisitive Austin friar, rector of the royal coll 
lege at'Alcala, in his curious work entitled Espana Sagrada, (of which 
the first voluma was printed in 1747,) t. 3, App. pp. 50, M. 



' JCLT 25.] ST. CHRISTOPHER, M. SStf) 

* The apostle with confidence committed his tender flock to Grod^ 
' imd commended to them his own work, whilst he rejoiced to go 
^ to his Redeemer, and to gire his life for him. We all meet 
'^ with trials. But can we fear or hesitate to drink a cup pre- 
i sented to us by the hand of G-od, and which our Lord and Cap- 
'' tain, by free choice, and out of pure love, was pleased himself 
^ to drink first for our sake ? He asks us whether'^e can drink 
' of his cup ? He encourages us by setting before our eyes the 
^ glory of heaven, and he invites us by his own divine example. 

* Let us hmnbly implore his grace, without which we can do no- 
I' thing, and take with joy this cup of salvation, which he presents 

> us with his divine hand. 

I 

I ST. CHRISTOPHER, M. 

' He suffered martyrdom under Decius in Lycia, and is honoured 

on this day in the Martyrology which bears the name of St. 
Jerom, and in other western Calendars, but is commemorated 
by the Greeks and other Oriental nations on the 9th of May. 
The Mosarabic Breviary, attributed to St. Isidore, mentiomi 
he translation of his relics to Toledo, whence they were brought 
/nto France, and are at present shown enshrined at the abbey 
of St. Denys near Paris. He seems to have taken the name of 
Christopher upon the like motive that St. Ignatius would be 
called Theophorus, to express his ardent love for his Redeemer, 
by which he always carried him in his breast as his great and 
only good, his inestimable treasure, and the object of all his 
afiections and desires. There seem to be no other grounds than 
this name for the vulgar notion of his great stature, the origin 
of which seems to have been merely allegorical, as Baronius ob- 
serves, and as Vida has beautifully expressed in an epigram on 
this saint^ The enormous statues of St. Christopher, still to 
be seen in many Gothic cathedrals, expressed his allegorical 
wading through the sea of tribulations, by which the faithful 
meant to signify the many sufferings through which he arrived 
at eternal life. They are monuments of the devotion of our an- 



* ** Christophore, infixum quM eum usque in corde gerebat, 
Pictores C^riBtum daot tibi ferre humeris," Ac. 

Vida, Hym. 26. t- ^2. p. l^. 



330 S&. THEA, &C. MM. £JdL.7 25. 

eestors to this saint, whose intercession they implored especiaUj 
against pestilential distempers. St. Gregory the Grreat men- 
tions a monastery in Sicily which bore the name of St. Chris- 
topher. See Pinius the Bollandist^ t. 6, p. 125. 

SAINTS THEA AND VALENTINA, VIRGINS, AND 
ST. PAUL, MM. 

In the year 308 there were at the same time six emperors, sno 
cessors of Dioclesian, namely in the East Galerius, Licinius, and 
Maximinns ; in the West Constantino, Maxentius, and his fa- 
ther, Maximian Herculeus, who had reassumed the purplci 
Firmillian, the successor of IJrbanus in the government of 
Palestine, under Maximinns IL, carried on the persecation 
with great cruelty. When fourscore and seventeen confessors, 
men, women, and children, out of an innumerable multitude (if 
Christians who were banished a long while before to the por- 
phyry quarries in Thebais, were brought before him, he com- 
manded the sinews of the joint of their left feet to be burnt with 
a hot iron ; and their right eyes to be put out, and the eye- 
holes burnt with a hot iron to the very bottom of the orb. In 
this condition he sent them to work at the mines in Palestine 
about mount Libanus. Many others were brought before this 
inhuman judge from different towns of Palestine, and were tor- 
mented in various ways. 

Among the Christians taken at Gaza, whilst they were as- 
sembled to hear the holy scriptures read, was a holy virgin 
named Thea, whom the judge threatened with the prostitution 
of her chastity in the public stews. She, to whom her virtue 
was most dear, reproached him for such infamous injustices. 
Finnilian, enraged at her Hberty of speech, caused her to be in- 
humanly scourged, then stretched on the rack, and her sides 
torn with iron hooks till the bare ribs appeared. Valentina, a 
pious Christian virgin of Caesarea, who had also by vow conse- 
crated her chastity to God, being present at this spectacle, cried 
out to the judge from the midst of the crowd : " How long will 
you thus torment my sister ?" She was immediately appre- 
hended, and being dragged by force to the axtar, she threw her* 
eelf upon it, and overturned it with her feet, together with the 
fixe and sacrifice which stood ready upon it. Finnilian, pro- 



t July 25.] nisskw, a. 33; 

B voked beyond bounds, commanded her sides to be more cruelly 

I torn than any others. Being at length wearied with torment- 

k ing her, he ordered the two virgins to be tied together and 

burnt. This was executed on the 25th of July, 308. One 

Paul, an illustrious confessor, was beheaded for the faith on the 
• same day, by an order of this judge. The fervour with which 

he prayed at the place of execution for the emperor, the judge 
J who condemned him, and his executioner, drew tears from all 

that were present Soon after one hundred and thirty Egyp- 
, tian confessors, by an order of Maximinus, had one eye pulled 

out^ and one foot taaimed, and were sent, some to the mines in 

Palestine, others to those in Cilicia. See Eusebius de Martyr. 

Palestinse, c. 8. Tillemont, t. 5. Fleury, L ix. Orsi, t. 4. 

ST. CUCUFAS, il. IN SPAIN. 

At Barcelona he is called St Cougat, at Ruel, near Paris, St 
Quiquenfat, in some other parts of France St Guinefort He 
was a native of Scillite in Africa, and of one of the first fa- 
milies of that country. To escape the persecution raised by 
Dioclesian he retired with St Felix into Mauritania, and after- 
wards into Spain. He was no sooner landed at Barcelona biit 
he was apprehended, and confessing his faith before Dacian, the 
cruel governor, was condemned by him, after suffering many 
torments, to lose his head in 304. His companion Felix re- 
ceived a like crown soon after him in Gironne. The relics of 
St Cucufas were brought into France in 777, and deposited in 
the abbey of St Denys, near Paris, in 835, where they still re- 
main with due honour. See Prudentius, hymn 4, the new 
Paris breviary on this day, the Roman Martyrology, and Bosch 
the Bollandist, t. 6, Jul p. 169* See also Chatelain, Notes sur 
le Martyr. Fevr. 16, p. 656. 

ST. NISSEN, ABBOT, 

Whom St Patrick baptized, i ordained deacon, and appointed 
abbot of Montgairt or Moimtgarrret, in the cotinty of Wexford, 
on the borders of Kilkenny, of which place he is titular saint 
See Colgan in MSS. ad 25 July. 



33:2 AT. ANNE, MOTHER OF B. V. M. [^Jui-Y 2€* 

JULY XXVL 

SAINT ANNE, MOTHER OF THE BLESSE1> 
VIRGIN. 

See Caper the Bollandist, t. 6, Julij, p. 233. 

The Hebrew word Anne signifies gracious. St. Joachim and 
St Anne, the parents of the blessed Virgin Mary, are justly 
honoured in the church, and their virtue is highly extolled by 
St. John Damascen. The emperor Justinian L built a church 
at Constantinople in honour of St Anne, about the year 550.(1) 
Codinus mentions another built by Justinian IL in 705. Her 
body was brought from Palestine to Constantinople in 710. 
whence some portions of her relics have been dispersed in the 
West F. Cuper the Bollandist has collected a great number 
of miracles wrought through her intercession.(2) 

God has been pleased by sensible effects to testify how much 
he is honoured by the devotion of the faithful to this saint, who 
was the great model of virtue to all engaged in the married 
state, and charged with the education of children. It was a 
sublime dignity and a great honour for this saint to give to a 
lost world the advocate of mercy, and to be parent of the mo- 
ther of God. But it was a far greater happiness to be, under 
God, the greatest instrument of her virtue, and to be spiritually 
her mother by a holy education in perfect innocence and sanc- 
tity. St Anne being herself a vessel of grace, not by name 
only, but by the possession of that rich treasure, was chos<^n by 
God to form his most beloved spouse to perfect virtue ; and her 
pious care of this illustrious daughter was the greatest means of 
her own sanctification and her glory in the church of God to 
the end of ages. It is a lesson to all parents whose principal 
duty is the holy education of their children. By this they glo- 
rify their Creator, perpetuate his honour on earth to future 
ages, and sanctify their own souls. St. Paul says, that it is by 
the education of their children that parents are to be saved.(3) 
Nor win he allow any one who has had children, ever to be ad- 
mitted to serve the altar, whose sons do not, by their holy con- 

(1 ) Prooop. de JFAit Justin. 1. 1, c. 2. (2) Julij, t 6, p. 250. 

(3) 2 Tim. ii. 5; 1 Tim. v. 4. 



JUL1[ 26.] ST. OSRHANUS, B. C. 333 

duct, give proofs of a virtuous education. Nevertheless, we sec 
parents solicitous about the corporal qualifications of their chil- 
dren, and earnest to procure them an establishment in the 
world; jet supinely careless in purchasing them virtue, in 
which alone their true happiness consists. This reflection drew 
tears from Crates, a heathen philosopher, who desired to mount 
on the highest place in his city and cry out with all his strength : 
" Citizens, what is it you think of? You employ all your time 
in heaping up riches to leave to your children ; yet take no 
care to cultivate their souls with virtue, as if an estate were 
more precious than themselves."(l) 

ST. GERMANUS, BISHOP OF AUXERRE, C. 

He was born at Auxerre a1y)ut the year 380, of noble parents. 
Having laid the foundation of sound literature at home, he 
studied eloquence and the civil law at Rome, and pleaded with 
great reputation in the court of the Praefectus-praetorio. He 
married a lady of great quality named Eustachia, a^d being 
taken notice of by the emperor Honorius, was raised by him to 
several honourable emplo3rments, and at last to that of duke in 
his own province, which dignity gave him the command over 
all the troops in that country. Germanus being returned to 
Auxerre, was careful to shun gross vices; but his religion 
seemed confined to principles of integrity, and his virtues were 
merely human ; for he was unacquainted with the true spirit of 
mortification, humility, and prayer. The young duke had a 
passion for hunting, and hung up the heads of the wild beasts 
which he killed on a great tree in the middle of the cilj, as 
trophies of his diversion. No one could presume to show him 
the meanness and folly of this favourite petty vanity, by which 
he seemed to authorize the superstitious custom of the Pagans 
who did the like to honour their gods. St Amator, who was 
at that time the zealous bishop of Auxerre, made him strong 
remonstrances on the danger of countenancing such remains of 
idolatry, but without effect At last, watching an opportunity, 
he caused this tree to be cut down while Germanus was absent, 
who, upon hearing this news, grievously threatened the bishop. 
St Amator withdrew for a while to Autun ; where ho learned 
V oju vn (1) Flutarch, 1. de Educand. liheris. 7 



334 ST. GBKMAiruS, B. C. IJUL.T *2ik 

by a revelation that Grermanna was designed by God to be hia 
. successor. He therefore procured privately the consent of Julius, 
the prefect of Gaul, that he might give the tonsure to &er- 
manus ; for, by the laws, no officer could quit his employment 
without such a permission. Julius giving leave, St. Amator 
returned to Auxerre, and causing the church doors to be shut 
when Germanus was come in, he gave him the tonsure, and 
ordained him deacon. By this instance, it appears, that imme- 
diately after the general persecutions, clerks were distinguished 
by the tonsure. This proof is the stronger, as the priest Gon- 
stantius wrote this life in ' the same oge. Germanus durst not 
make any opposition for fear of resisting the will of God. St. 
Amator died soon after on the 1st of May in 418, and St. Ger- 
manus was unanimously chosen bv the clergy and people to suc- 
ceed him, and consecrated by the bishops of the province on the 
7th of July, notwithstanding the great reluctance he discovered. 
Full of a deep sense of the obligations of his new dignity, he 
became at once another man. He renoimced all the pomps and 
vanities of the world, lived with his wife no otherwise than if 
she had been his sister, distributed all his possessions to the 
poor and to the Church, and embraced a life of poverty and 
austerity. From the day he was ordained bishop to his death, 
that is, for thirty years together, he never touched wheaten 
bread, wine, vinegar, oil, pulse, or salt. He began every meal 
by putting a few ashes in his mouth to renew in his soul a spirit 
of penance, and took no other sustenance than barley bread, 
which grain he had threshed and ground himself, that he might, 
as a true penitent, live by his own labour. He never ate but 
in the evening, sometimes about the middle of the week, often 
only on the seventh day. His dress was the same in winter and 
summer, and consisted of a cowl and tunic which he never 
changed till they were worn to pieces. He always wore a hair- 
cloth next his skin. His bed was enclosed with two boards, 
strewed with ashes, without a bolster, and covered with a sack- 
cloth and one blanket. He always carried about him some 
rehcs of saints in a Httle box, tied to a leather string. He ex- 
tended his hospitality to all sorts of persons, washed the feet of 
the poor, and served them with his own hands, at tlie same time 
that he himself fasted. He built a monastery over against 



July 26.] st. gkbmanus, b. c 335 

Auxerre, on the other side of the river Tone, in honour of SS. 
Cosmas and Damian, which now goes by the name of St. 
Marian's, from one of its first abbots. He found the sepulchres 
of several martyrs, particularly of a great multitude who had 
been put to death in the persecution of Aurelian, with St. Priscus, 
otherwise called St Bry, in a place called Coucy, where their 
bodies had been thrown into a cistern or pit out of which he 
took them, and built in their honour a church and monastery, 
called at this day de Saints en Put/ sat/e, St. Grermanus gave 
all his landed estates to the Church, consisting of several agree- 
able and spacious manors, lying all contiguous to one>another.(l) 
Seven of these he gave to the cathedral church, namely Appoigny, 
where his father and mother had been buried in St. John's 
church ; little Varsy, where stood a palace ; great Varsy, Toucy, 
Poeilly, Marcigny, and Perigni. Three he settled on the monas- 
tery of St. Cosmas, namely, Monoeaux, Fontenay, and Merilles. 
He bestowed three others, called Garohy, Concou, and Molins, 
on the church which he built in honour of St. Maurice, which 
at this day bears the name of St. Germanus himself. In this 
manner he reduced himself to great poverty, and to perpetuate 
the divine honour, and the relief of the indigent, enriched the 
church of Auxerre which he found very poor. By many like 
examples, it appears, that the great endowments of several 
churches were originally owing to the liberality of their bishops, 
as Fleury observes. 

Pelagius began to dispute against the necessity of divine grace 
at Rome, about the year 405. Being himself by birth a Briton, 
it is not to be wondered that he should have disciples in Britain. 
Among these one Agricola, the son of Severinus, who, after the 
birth of this son, was chosen ^bishop and became a Pelagian, 
spread the poison of this heresy in our island. The deacon 
PalladiuSy whom Pope Celestine had seat to the places infected 
with this heresy, and wIkmb he afterwards ordained bishop, and 
eoDunissioned to go into Scotland, moved him to provide for the 
preservation of so many souls ; and other Catholics in Britain 
had sent a deputation to the bishops in Gktul, entreating them 
to send over some able person to defend the faith and oppose 

(1) Hist. Episc. Antisiodor. See Messieurs De Ste. MacCh^ in QalUa 
ChriBtiana. 



336 0T. OEHMANUS, 8. C. [Jui.T 2J. 

the growing enL Pope Celestme nominated St Grermanas of 
Anxerre to go thither in quality of his vicar in the year 429* 
as St Prosper assures U8.(l) The bishops of Ganl assembled 
in a numerous council for the same purpose, and agreed to en- 
treat St Lupus, who had then been only two years bishop of 
Troyes, to accompany St €rermanus in this important mission.(2) 
These two holy prelates, proceeding on their journey, came to 
Nanterre near Paris, where St Grermanus gave his blessing 
and good counsel to St Geneyieve, and foretold her future sanc- 
tity. She being at that time about fifteen years old, and desi- 
rous to consecrate herself a virgin to God, St Germanus, after 
many solemn prayers in the church, received there her vow, 
and confirmed it by laying his right hand upon her head.(3) 

St Grermanus and St Lupus embarking in the winter season, 
were overtaken with a furious tempest, which St Grermanus 
appeased by casting some drops of blessed oil, according to Con- 
stantius, but according to Bede, of holy water, into the sea, 
having first invoked the adorable Trinity. Being arrived in 
Britain they were met by a great multitude of people, and the 
fame of their sanctity, doctrine, and miracles soon filled the 
whole country. They confirmed the Catholics in all parts, and 
converted the heretics, preaching often in the highways and 
fields where the churches were not able to contain the crowd 
that fiocked to them. The Pelagians every where shunned 
them ; but being at length ashamed thus to condemn themselves 
by their fiight and silence, accepted a conference. The dispu- 
tation was held at Yerulam before an incredible number of peo- 
ple. The heretics, who made their appearance with a great 
train and in rich apparel, spoke first When they had talked a 
long time, the bishops answered them with great eloquence, and 
so invincibly supported their arguments with quotations from 
scripture, that their adversaries were fairly reduced to silence. 
The people applauded their victory with joyful acclamations. 
Before the assembly broke up, a certain tribune and his wife 
presented their little daughter of ten years of age, » who was 
blind, to the two hgly bishops ; and they bid them take her to 

(1) Frofp. in Chron. et I, contra CoUat. c. 21. 

(2) Bede Hist. 1. 1, c. 17, Constant, in yit& S. G^muuu 
(8) Yita S. GeneyeyaB. 



July 26.] st. oebmakus, b. c 337 

the Pelagians* But the latter joined the parents in begging the 
saints to pray for her. The two bishops made a short prayer ; 
then Germanus called upon the Blessied Trinity ; and taking 
from his neck the little box of relics which he wore, laid it upon 
the eyes of the girl before the whole assembly, who immediately 
recoTcred her sight, to the great joy of her parents and of all 
the people. From that day no one opposed the doctrine of the 
holy bishops. The saints went from this conference to return 
thanks to God at the tomb of St Alban, the most illustrious 
martyr in Britain. St. Germanus caused his sepulchre to be 
opened, and deposited in it his box of relics of apostles and 
martyrs, taking from the same place a little of the dust which 
still retained some marks of the blood of St. Alban. This he 
carried away with him, and, at his return, built at Auxerre a 
church in his honour, where he placed these relics.(l) 

The Saxons from Germany on one side, and on the other the 
Picts, at that time harassed the Britons. Paul the deacon tells 
us, that an army of Picts and Scots inyaded their territories 
whilst the two bishops were in the island ; and Bishop Usher 
takes notice, that the Saxons and English who inhabited Sleswic, 
and all the German coast from Denmark to the Rhine, made 
descents upon Britain from time to time before the arrival of 
Hengist and Horsa in 449* The Britons having assembled an 
army against these plunderers, invited the two holy bishops into 
their camp, hoping to be protected by their prayers and presence. 
The saints complied with their request, but employed their time 
in bringing the idolaters to the faith, and the Christians to a 
reformation of their manners. Many of the former demanded 
baptism, and the saints prepared them to receive it at Easter, 
for it was then Lent They erected a church in the camp, of 
green boughs twisted together, in which the catechumens re- 
ceived the sacrament of regeneration ; and the whole army cele- 
brated the festival with great devotion. After Easter, St. Ger- 
manus had recourse to a stratagem, by which, without bloodshed, 
he rescued his dear converts and the country out of the danger 
with which they were threatened. The enemy approaching, 
he put himself at the head of the Christians with so much skill 
and address as showed he had not forgotten his old profession of < 
(1) Hist. Epiflcop. Antiuod. 



338 ST. GXBMAKUSy B. & [JuX-X 2& 

general. He led his little armj into a vale between two bigh 
mountains, and ordered his troops to send forth the same shout 
for which he would give them a sign. When the Saxon pirates 
came near them, he cried oat thrice, Alleluiahy which was fol- 
lowed by the whole British armj ; and the sound was often 
repeated by the echo from the hills with as dreadful a noise as 
if the rocks had been rent asunder. The barbarians, in a sudden 
fright, judging from the shout that thej were falling upon the 
swords of a mightj army, flung down their arms and ran away, 
leaving behind them aU their baggage and a great booty. Many 
of them were drowned in crossing a river; by missing the fords.(l ) 
Bishop nsher(2) says, this battle seems to have been . fought 
near a town in Flintshire, called in the British tongue, Guid- 
cmc, but in English, Mould. The place retains to this day the 
name of Maes Gannon, or German's field. The two holy bishops 
after so many victories, returned home to their respective dio- 
cesses.* 

St. Germanus found his people loaded with extraordinary 
imposts, and undertook a journey to Aries, to solicit Auxiliaris, 
prefect of Gaul, in their behalf. On the road, the people every 
where met him in crowds, with the women and children, to 
receive his blessing. When he drew near to Aries, the prefect 
^uxiliaris himself, contrary to custom, had come a good way 
to meet him, and conducted him to the capital. He admired 
his gracefulness, and the charity and authority which his coun- 
tenance and conversation displayed, and found him to exceed 
his reputation. He made him great presents, and entreated 
him to cure his wife who had been long ill of a quartan ague. 
He obtained his request, and granted St Germanus the dis- 
charge from the taxes which he had asked for his people. The 

(1) Bede, Hist. 1. 1, c. 1. Gildas, ep. pp. 17, 18. Constantius in vita 
S. GcTmani. Carte, pp. 184, 186. 

(2) Antiq. Brit. c. 11, pp. .179, 180. Carte, t. 1, p. 288. 

* Carte (pp. 18i, 186,) thinkB the AUeltdah Tictory gained over the 
Picts and Saxons, and the other transactions of St. Germanus in Wales, 
hsppened in his second mission. For SS. Dubricins and Iltutns, whom 
he ordained bishops, lived beyond the year 512, according to some until 
627 or even i>40. Sir Henry Spehnan and Wilkins, (Cone. Brit. t. 1, 
p. 1,) on this account phice the synod of Venilam, held by St. Germiums 
against the Pelagians, in 446. 



1 



July 26.] st. qeemani^s, b. c. 339 

saint being returned home, applied himself earnestly to reform 
their manners; but used to retire from time to time to his mo- 
nastery of SS. Cosmas and Damian. In 446 he was called 
again into Britain, to assist that church against the Pelagian 
heresy, which began a second time to raise its head there. He 
took for his companion St. Severus, who had been lately pro- 
moted to the archbishopric of Triers, and had formerly been a 
disciple of St. Lupus of Troyes. In Britain he sought out 
those who had been seduced by the heretics, and converted 
many of them ; so that the obstinate sowers of those errors 
found no longer any retreat here, and quitted the island. A 
principal man of the country, called Elaphius, brought to him 
his son, who was in the flower of his age, and had one ham 
contracted and his leg withered. St Germanus made him sit 
down, and touching his ham and leg, healed him in the pre- 
sence of many. St. Germanus considering that ignorance 
could not be banished, nor the reformation which he had 
established maintain its ground, without regular schools for the 
instruction of the clergy, instituted schools of learning, by which 
means, " These churches continued afterwards pure in the faith, 
and free from heresy," as Bede observes.(l) In South Wales, 
Laving ordained St. Iltutus priest, and St Dubricius arch- 
bishop of Landaff, he charged them with the care of several 
schools, which soon grew very famous for the numbers, learn- 
ing, and eminent sanctity of those who were there educated. 
Two of these, under the immediate direction of the latter, were 
seated at Hentlan and Moch-ros, places lying on the river Wye, 
where he had one thousand scholars, for years together. The 
names of the most eminent among them are mentioned in the 
life of St. Dubricius, written, as some maintain, by St Thelian's 
own hand in the ancient Landaff register.(2) The schools of 
St. Iltutus at Llan-Iltut (now Lantwit) near Boverton, and at 
L,lan-elty, near Neath in Glamorganshire, were in like repute, 
and equally filled with the sons of the nobility from ull parts of 
the island. Among his disciples we find St Gildas, St. Leo* 
norius, bishop and confessor, St* Samson, St. Magloire, St 

CI) Bede Hist 1. 1, c. 21. BoUandus and Hensdieniu* in vittiS. Tho- 
|i»a ad 9 February, &c 

C2) Stillingfleet, Orig. Britan. p. 349. 



S4(X' ST. GEBMANCS, B. C [JdLY 26. 

Malo, St. Paul, afterwards bishop of Leon, and Darnel, wbom 
St Dubricias made bishop of Bangor, where he likewise insti- 
tuted a seminary for the Britons. Paulinus, another disciple 
of St G^rmanus, did the like at Whiteland in Caermarthen- 
shire, where St David and St Theliau studied. The semina- 
ries of Llancanran, near Cowbridge, and the famous school of 
Bencor, in Flintshire, were also noble monuments of St Ger- 
manus's zeal. This saint was on his road back when he met a 
deputation from the inhabitants of Armmca or Brittanj, who 
besought him to be their protector ; for to punish them for a 
revolt, Aetius, the Boman general in Gaul, had sent Eocarich, 
a Pagan and barbarous king of the Alemanni, to subdue them. 
St. Germanus boldlj accosted the barbarian, stopping his horse 
hj the bridle, at the head of his armj. The German at first 
refused to hear him ; but at length listened to his discourse, and 
by it was so much softened as to call off his troops, and agree 
not to ravage the province, on condition he should obtain the 
pardon of the people from the emperor, or from his general 
Aetius. In order to procure this the saint undertook a journey 
to Ravenna, where the Emperor Yalentinian III. then resided. 
He wrought several miracles on the way, and at Milan deli- 
vered a man who was possessed by the devil. He entered the 
city of Bavenna by night to avoid honour^ and pomp ; but the 
people being aware of his precaution, a great crowd awaited 
for him, and saluted him with acclamations. He was received 
with great joy by the bishop, St Peter Chrysologus ; by the 
young Emperor Yalentinian, and his mother Placidia. She 
sent to his house a great silver vessel filled with dainties, without 
any fiesh, which she knew he would never touch. The saint 
sent her in return a barley loaf upon a wooden dish. The em- 
press received it graciously, ordered the dish to be enchased 
with gold, and kept the loaf, by which several miraculous cures 
were performed. The emperor confirmed his request ; but the 
restless people, by raising new disturbances, destroyed the 
effect of the imperial clemency. The saint was continually at- 
tended at Bavenna by six bishops, and wrought there many 
miracles. The son of Volusian, chancellor or secretary to the 
patrician Sigisvultus, being dead and cold, the saint was called, 
and having put all the company out of the chamber, he proa- 



July 26.] 8T. germanus, b. c. 341 

trated himself near the corpse, and prayed with tears. After 
some time the dead man began to stir, opened his eyes, and 
moved his fingers. St Germanus raised him, he sat up, and, 
by degrees, was restored to perfect health. One day after ma- 
tins, as the saint was talking with the bishops of religious mat* 
ters, he said to them : ^* My brethren, I recommend my passage 
to your prayers. Methought I saw this night our Saviour, who 
gave me provision for a journey, and told me, it was to go into 
my native country, and to receive eternal rest. A few days 
after, he fell sick. All the city was alarmed. The empress 
went to see him, and he desired the favour of her to send back 
his corpse into his own country ; to which she assented, though 
very unwillingly. He died at Ravenna on the seventh day of 
his illness, which was the last of July in 448, having held his 
see thirty years and twenty-five days. The Empress Placidia 
took his reliquary, St. Peter Chrysologus his feowl and hair 
shirt, and the six other bishops divided his clothes among them. 
The eunuch Acholius, prefect of the emperor's chamber, one of 
whose servants, when sick, the saint had cured, had his corpse 
embalmed ; the empress clothed it with a rich habit, and gave 
a cofiin of cypress wood ; the emperor furnished the carrkiges, 
the expense of the journey, and the officers to attend it. The 
funeral pomp was most magnificent ; the number of lights was 
so great, that they shone as broad-day. Every where as it 
passed^ the people came to meet it, showing all manner of ]io- 
nours. Some levelled the ways and repaired the bridges, others 
bore the corpse, or at least sung psalms. The clergy of Auxerre 
went as far as the Alps to meet it. The sacred treasure was 
brought to that city fifty days after the saint's death, and after 
having been exposed six days, was interred on the 1st of Oc- 
tober in the oratoiy of St. Maurice, which he had founded, 
where stands at present the famous abbey which bears his name. 
His principal festival is kept on the 31st of this month. St. 
Germanus was the titular saint of many churches in England, 
and of the great abbey of Selby, in Yorkshire, the abbot 
whereof was a parliamentary baron. A chapel near Verulam, 
in which St Germanus had preached, was a place of great de- 
votion to him among our ancestors, and was afterwards dedi« 
cated imder his name. From him the parliamentary borough 



342 ST. PANTAL.EON, M. [JuLY 27 

of St. German's, in Cornwall, is called. See his life written 
by the priest Constantius, who was nearlj his contemporarj, 
and is commended bj St. Sidonius Apollinaris in the same age : 
also Bede, and Nennius, the British historian, who wrote in 
620. All these relate the miracles mentioned above. See alaa 
Leland's Itinerary, Brown- Willis, Usher, Fleury, Tillemont, 
t. 15, Bivet. Hist. Litter, t. 2, p. 256, and Becueil des Lettres 
sur la Verification des Beliques de St. Germain d'Auxerre, 
1753, in 8vo. 



JULY XXVIL 

ST. PANTALEON, MARTYR. 

See the Collections of F. Bosch the^BoUandist, t. 6, Julij, p. 397- 
A. I>. 303. 

He was physician to the Emperor Galerios Maximianus, and a 
Christian, but fell by a temptation which is sometimes more 
dangerous than the severest trials of the fiercest torments ; for 
bad example, if not shunned, insensibly weakens, and at length 
destroys the strongest virtue. Pantaloon being perpetually ob- 
sessed by it in an impious idolatrous court, and deceived by 
often hearing the false maxims of the world applauded, was 
unhappily seduced into an apostacy. But a zealous Christian 
called Hermolaus, by his prudent admonitions awakened his 
conscience to a sense of his guift, and brought him again inta 
the fold of the Church. The penitent ardently wished to ex- 
piate his crime by martyrdom ; and to prepare himself for the 
conflict, when Dioclesian's bloody persecution broke out at 
Nicomedia in 303, he distributed all his possessions among the 
poor* Not long after this action he was taken up, and in his 
house were also apprehended l^ermolaus, Hermippus, and Her- 
mocrates. After suffering many torments they were all con- 
demned to lose their heads. St. Pantaloon suffered the day after 
the rest He is ranked by the Greeks amongst the great mar- 
tyrs. Procopius mentions a church in his honour at Constanti- 
nople, w'lijch being decayed was repaired by Justiniaui His 
relics were translated to Constantinople, and there kept with 



Jbl*Y 27.1 ST. PAWTALEOir, M. 343 

great honour, as^ St. John Damascen informs us.(l) The 
greater part of them are now shown in the abbey of St. Denys, 
near Paris, but his head at Lyons. 

Physicians honour St. Pantaleon as their chief patron after 
St Luke. Happy are they in that profession who improve 
their study chiefly to glorify the supreme Creator, whose in- 
finite power and wisdom are displayed in all his works ; and 
who, by the opportunities of charity which their art continually 
offers them, rejoice to afford comfort, and corporal, if not of- 
ten also spiritual succour, to the most suffering and distressed 
part of their species, especially among the poor. All the heal- 
ing powers of medicine are a gift of God ;(2) and he himself 
who could have restored Ezechias to health by the least act of 
his omnipotent will, directed Isaiah to apply dry figs to the ab- 
scess into which his fever was terminating ; than which poul- 
tice no better remedy could have been used to promote suppu- 
ration.(3) St. Ambrose,(4) St. Besil,(5) and St. Bernard,(6) 
inveigh severely against too nice and anxious a care of health, 
as a mark of inordinate self-love and immortification ; nor is 
any thing generally more hurtful to it But as man is not mas- 
ter of his own life or health, he is bound to take a moderate 
reasonable care not to throw them away.(7) To neglect the 
more simple and ordinary succours of medicine when absolutely 
necessary, is to transgress that law of charity which every one 
owes to himself.(8) The saints who condemned as contrary to 
their penitential state, far-sought or exquisite means, with St 
Charles Borromaeo, were scrupulously attentive to essential pre- 
scriptions of physicians in simple and ordinary remedies. But 
let the Christian in sickness seek in the first place the health of 
his soul by penance, and the exercise of all virtues. Let him 
also consider Grod as his chief physician, begging him, if i^ 
may be conducive to his divine honour, to restore the frame he 
created, and entreating our Redeemer to stretch out that hand 

(1) Or. 3, de Imag, (2) Ecclus. xxxviii. 1, 2. 

(3) 4 Kings xx. 7'. See Syn. Critic, and Mead, De Morbis BiWicis, 
c. 5. 

(4) Serin. 22, in Ps. 118. (5) BeguL &S. expHc. 

(6) Ep. 345, ol. 321, p. 316, et in Cant. 

(7) See Estius in Eccli. xxxTiii. 

(5) Ephes. V. 29; Ang. ep. 130, ol. 121, ad Probam. . 



344 ST. MAXIBHANy <&C. [JlJI«Y 27* 

ii(>on him, with which in his mortal state he restored so manj 
sick to their health. He who trasts more in the art of physi- 
cians than in the Lord, will deserve the reproach of Asa, king 
of Juda.(l) So hidden are often the causes of distempers, so 
precarious the power of remedies, and so uncertain the skill of 
the ablest physicians, that their endeavours frequently check 
nature instead of seconding its efforts, and thus hasten death. 
The divine ble&sing alone is the Christian's sheet-anchor, per- 
fect resignation to the divine will is the secure repose of his 
soul ; and the fervent exercise of penance, patience, and devo- 
tion, is his gain in the time of sickness. 

SS. MAXIMIAN, MALCHUS, MARTINIAN, DIONY- 
SIUS. JOHN SERAPION, AND CONSTANTINE, MM., 

COliMONLY CALLED THE SEVEN SLEEPERS. 

Having confessed the faith before the proconsul at Ephesus, 
under Decius, in 250, they were walled up together in a cave 
in which they had hid themselves, and there slept in the Lord. 
Some modems, mistaking this expression, have imagined that 
they only lay asleep, till they were found in 479, under Theo- 
dosius the younger. The truth seems to be, that their relics 
were then discovered. They are much honoured by the 
Greeks, Syrians, and all the oriental nations. Their relics, 
were conveyed to Marseilles in a large' stone coffin, which is 
still shown there in St. Victor's church. In the MussBum Vic- 
torium at Rome is a factitious plaster or stone, (made of sul- 
phur melted with fire and mortar,) formed in imitation of a 
large precious stone, in which is cut a group of figures repre- 
senting the Seven Sleepers, with their names, and near Con- 
stantine and John are exhibited two clubs ; near Maximian a 
knotty club, near Malchus and Martinian two axes, near Sera- 
pion a burning torch, and near Danesius (whom others call 
Dionysius) a great nail. That large nails (elavi trabales, or 
such as were used in joining great rafters or beams in build- 
ings,) were made use of as instruments of torture is evident 
from St. Paulinus(2) and Horace.(3) From this ancient mcK 

(1) 2 Paral. xv. 12. 
(2) Paulin. Nat. 9, or Carm. 24. (3^ Herat. I. I, od. 8. 



JULT 28.] SS. KAZABIUS, <&C., MM. 345 

nument dome infer that these mailyrs were put to death by va- 
rious torments, and that their bodies were only buried in the 
aforesaid cave. In this group of figures these martyrs are re- 
presented all as very young, and without beards. In ancient 
martyrologies and other writings they are frequently called 
boys.* The cave in which their bodies were found became a 
place famous for devout pilgrimages, and is still shown to tra- 
vellers, as James Spon testifies.(l) See St. Gregory of Tours, 
1. 1, de Glor.Mart;, c. 95, and Cuper the Bollandist, JuUj, t. 
6, p. 375. Also, Dissertatio de Sanctis Septem Dormien- 
tibus, BomsB, 1741, in 4to., in which the above said group of 
figures is explained, c. 5, &c. 

ST. CONGALL, ABBOT OF lABHNALLIVIN, 

On the upper part of the lake Erne, of which parish he is ti- 
tular patron. Before his death he committed the government 
of his monastery to his beloved disciple St. Fegnamach. In 
that territory his festival is a holyday of precept, as Colgan as- 
sures us, on the 27th of July. 

ST. LUICAN, C. 
Is titular saint of the parish called Kill-luicain in Ireland. 



JULY XXVIII. 

SS. NAZARIUS AND CELSUS, MM. 

From two sermons delivered on their festival, the one by St. Ennodlus, 
the other passes under the name of St. Ambrose, and was written soon 
after his time, perhaps by St. Gaudentius of Brescia ; also from Fan- 
linus the Deacon, in his life of St. Ambrose. See Tillemont. t 2, and 
Finius the Bollandist, t. 6, JuUj, p. 503. 

ABOUT THS TEAR 68. 

St. Nazabius's father was a heathen, and enjoyed a consider- 
able post in the Roman army. His mother Perpetua was azea- 

(1) Spon, Voyage dltalie et du Levant, 1. 1, 1. 3, p. 327- 



• Piieri, See Dis. de SS. 7 ; Dormient. c. 18, p. 65, et c. 6, p. 11. 
The Menology of the Emperor Basil, printed at Borne in 1727, &c. 



346 ST. vicTOB, p. M, lJult 28. 

lous Christian, and was instructed hj St. Peter, or his disci- 
ples, in the most perfect maxims of our holy faith. Nazarius 
embraced it with so much ardour that he copied in his life all 
the great virtues he saw in his teachers ; and out of zeal for 
the salvation of others left Rome, his native citj, and preached 
the faith in many places with a fervour and disinterestedness 
becoming a disciple of the aposUes. Arriving at Milan he was 
there beheaded for the faith, togellier with Celsus, a youth 
whom he carried with him to assist him in his travels. These 
martyrs suffered soon after Nero had raised the first persecu- 
tion. Their bodies were buried separately in a garden without 
the city, where they were discovered and taken up by St. Am- 
brose in 395. In the tomb of St. Nazarius a vial of the saint's 
blood was found as fresh and red as if it had been spilt that 
day. The faithful stained handkerchiefs with some drops^ and 
also formed a certain paste with it ; a portion of which St. Am- 
brose sent to St. Gaudentius, bishop of Brescia. St. Ambrose 
conveyed the bodies of the two martyrs into the new church of 
.the apostles, which he had just built. A woman was delivered 
of an evil spirit in their presence; St. Ambrose sent some of 
these relics of St. Paulinus of Nola, who received them with 
great respect^ as a most valuable present, as he testifies.(]) 

The martyrs died as the outcasts of the world, but are 
crowned by God with immortal honour. The glory of the 
world is false and transitory, and an empty bubble or shadow ; 
but that of virtue is true, solid, and permanent^ even in the 
eyes of men ; for, to use the comparison of St. Basil,(2) as 
the more we look upon the sun the more we admire it, and by 
reviewing it never find it less bright or less beautiful ; so the 
memory of the martyrs which we celebrate, after so many 
years, is only more fresh in our minds, and will be more flou- 
rishing in all ages to come. 

ST. VIGTOE, POPE, M. 

He was a native of Africa, and succeeded St £leutherius in 
the pontificate, in the year 192, the nineteenth of Commodua. 

(1) St. Panlin. Conn. 24, and ep. 12. On the relics of St. Nazarius 
at Milan, see the life of St. Charies Borromeo, by Gnissiano, in the new 
Latin edition, 1. 5, c. 9, p. 435, and the notes of Oltrocci, ibid. 

(2) &Bas. hflm.4e6. Oordio 



July 28.] st. victor, p. m. 347 

The practice of those yirtues which had prepared him for that 
dignitj rendered him a true successor of the apostles. He vi- 
gorously opposed the rising heresies of that age. Theodotus of 
Byzantium, a tanner, having apostatized from the faith to save 
his life in a late persecution, afterwards, to extenuate his guilt, 
pretended that he had denied only a man, not God ; teaching 
that Christ was nothing more than a mere man, as the Soci- 
nians teach at this day ; whereas the Arians .allowed him to 
have been before the world, though himself a creature Theo- 
-dotus, going to Bome, there drew many into his blasphemous 
error ; for he was well versed in polite literature ; but Victor 
checked his progress by excommunicating him, with Ebion, 
Artemon, and another Theodotus, who had taught the same 
blasphemy.(l) This other Theodotus, called Trapezita, or the 
banker, was author of the Melchisedecian heresy, pretending 
that Melchisedec was greater than Christ 

Montanus, a new convert in Mysia, near Phrygia, out of an 
unbounded desire of invading the first dignities of the church, 
and filled with rage to see himself disappointed, began to preach 
against the church ; and having by pride and ambition given 
entrance to the devil, commenced false prophet, and sometimes 
losing his senses, began in an enthusiastic strain to utter extra- 
ordinary expressions. Frisca, or Priscilla, and Maximilla, two 
women of quality, but of debauched lives, left their husbands, 
and being filled with the same spirit, spoke like Montanus, void 
of sense, and after an- extravagant and unusual manner, pre- 
tending they succeeded the prophets among the disoip]e».of the 
apostles. Montanus placed himself above the apostles, saying 
that he had received the Paraclete, or the Holy Ghost promised 
by Christ, to perfect his law. He denied that the church had 
power to forgive the sins of idolatry, murder, and impurity, 
and hardly received any sinners on repentance. St. Paul had 
allowed second marriages; but Montanus forbade them as incon- 
sistent with the perfect law of chastity ; and he forbade Chris- 
tians to flee in time of persecution. The Montanists were also 
called from their country, Cataphryges, andPepuzeni, from 
Pepuzium, a littiie town in Phrygia, which was their capital, 

(1) S. Epipb. Hser. 54; Eus. 1. 5, c. 28; Cone t. 1 ; Hieodoiet, Had. 
ret. FabuL 1. 2, c. &. 



348 BT. viCTOB, P. M. [July 28. 

and which they called Jerusalem.(l) They boasted of their 
iuiirt3rrs, as the Marcionites also did ; which other heretics sel- 
dom pretend to, as St. Irenaeus and Origen take notice ; nor 
could these have any great number. Apollonius, a Catholic 
writer quoted by Eusebius, confounding the hypocrisy of th© 
Montanists, reproached their pretended prophetesses with infa- 
mous debaucheries, and with receiving presents, saying: 
" Does a prophet colour his hair, paint his eye-brows, play at 
dice, or lend out money on usury ? I will demonstrate that 
they are guilty of these things." The Catholics met to exa- 
mine their pretended new prophecies, and convicted them of 
falsehood, because the true prophets were not beside themselves 
when they spoke ; also, the Montanists had lied in their predic- 
tions, and opposed the doctrine of the church. Asterius Ur- 
banus, a learned priest, (for he calls St. Zoticus fellow-priest,) 
confounded them by these arguments, in a great conference 
held at Ancyra, about the year 188. Their prophecies and 
errors being condemned as impious, the followers of Montanus 
were driven out of the church, and excommunicated. It was 
reported for certain that Montanus and Maximilla, led away by 
the spirit that possessed them, afterwards hanged themselves. 
These particulars are related by Eusebius. 

Tertullian who fell into this heresy about the time of the 
death of Pope Victor, says,(2) that this pope at first admitted 
to the communion of the church these pretended prophets. And 
it was easy to be deceived in a matter of fact concerning per- 
sons at such a distance, and who appeared under the garb of 
hypocrisy. But he had no sooner answered their letters, in 
which he acknowledged them brethren, but Praxeas coming 
from the East, brought him an ample account of their tenets 
and practice : and Victor immediately recalled his letters of 
communion, and condemned these innovators. This Praxeas 
was a Phrygian, and being puffed up because he had suffered 
imprisonment for the faith, began to sow a new heresy at Rome, 
maintaining but one person in God, and attributing crucifixion 

to the Father as well as the Son; whence his followers were 

* 

(1) Eu8. 1. 5, c. 17; St. Hier. ep. 54, ad Marcel. ; Tert. 1. de Fug^ 
de Pudic. &c. 

(2) Tert. 1. adv. Praxeam. 



3VLY 28.] ST. VICTOB, T, M. 349 

called Patripassians. His errors being brought to light, he 
was also cut off from the communion of the church. 

About the same time Tatian fell from the church. He was 
a feyrian, a Platonic philosopher, and a disciple of St. Justin, 
martyr, after whose death he taught some time at Rome. Af- 
terwards, returning into Syria in l7l, he there broached his 
errors, which he durst not advance at Rome. He borrowed 
several of them from Marcion, Valentinus, and Saturninus, 
teaching two principles, and that the Creator is the evil prin- 
ciple of God. He added several new errors, as that Adam was 
damned. He condemned marriage as no less criminal than 
adultery, whence his followers were called Encratitae, or the 
continent. They were likewise called Hydroparastatae, or 
Aquarii, because, in consecrating the Eucharist, they used only 
water, for they condemned all use of wine, and likewise the 
use of flesh-meat.(l) The ancients observe that Tatian's fall 
was owing to pride, which often attends an opinion of know- 
ledge ;* and of this there cannot be a more dangerous symptom 
in a scholar than a fondness for novelty and singularity, espe- 
cially if joined with obstinacy and opiniativeness. 

St. Victor was watchful to cut off these scandals in their 
root, and everywhere to maintain the purity of the faith with 
unity. Upon this motive, he exerted his zeal in the dispute 
about the time of celebrating Easter. The churches of Lesser 
Asia kept it with the Jews on the fourteenth day of the first 
moon after the vernal equinox, on whatever day of the week it 

(1) S. Epiph. Hser. 46; S. Iren. 1. 1, c. 31 ; Clem. Alex. Strom. 1. 3, 
p. 465. 

• Tatkn's Oration against the Greeks is extant. In it he displays 
much profane erudition, showing that Moses was older than the Gentile 
philosophers, who borrowed the sciences from the patriarchs. He wrote 
this piece after the death of St. Justin, but before his separation from 
the church : for in it he proves one God the Creator of all things, and 
seems to approve the state of matrimony. It wants method ; but the 
style is elegant enough, though exuberant, and not very elaborate. This 
piece is often published at the end of the works of St. Justin. We have 
an accurate separate edition, printed at Oxford in 1700, with notes and 
dissertations, by the care of Mr. William Worth, archdeacon of Wor- 
cester. P. Travasa, in his learned history of heresiarchs, demonstrates 
against Massuet, &c., that Tatian's Oration against the Gentiles is not 
orthodox ; and that in it the author teaches that the human soul is of its 
own nature mortal. See Travasa Storia Critica delle vite degli eresiar- 
ohi, t. 2. at Venice, 1760. » 

yUA-. VU. 



350 ST. VICTOR, F. M. [JCLT 2A. 

felL Tho Roman church, and all the rest of the world, kept 
Easter always on the Sundaj immediately following that four- 
teenth day. Pope Anicetus pertnitted these Asiatics to keep their 
own custom, even at Rome; but Pope Soter, his successor, obliged 
them to conform to the custom of places where they should be» 
Several councils held at Rome, in Palestine, in Pontus, in Gaul, 
at Corinth, and other places, unanimously determined the point 
according to the Roman custom. Yet Polycrates, bishop of £phe- 
8US, wrote strenuously in defence of the Asiatic custom, which 
he said was derived from St. Philip who died at Hierapolis^ frmn 
St. John the Evangelist, St P(dycarp, bishop and martyr, Saga- 
rus, bishop and martyr, who died at Laodicea, and others. Victor 
seeing the Asiatics fixed in their resolution, threatened to cut 
them off from the communion of the church ; fix>m the words 
of Eusebius* some modems infer with Baronius, Constant, and 
De Marca, that he excommunicated them in a letter, but im» 
mediately suspended or recalled the sentence : others with Tho- 
massin, Natalis Alexander, and Graveson, think that he only 
threatened it ; which opinion best agrees with the sequeL To 
reconcile the di^rent passages of authors, F. John Philip 
Monti (1) thinks Pope Victor, upon receiving the refractory 
answer of Polycrates, drew up a sentence of excommunicatiou, 
but never sent or published the same, being overcome by the 
advice of St. Irensua. The schism which Blastus, a priest, had 
lately formed at Rome, upon the difference of this rite, for 
which he had been degraded by Pope Eleutherius, probably 
made St Victor more severe in extirpating a practice whidi 
became daily more dangerous to the unity of the church ; but 
|)radence and charity recommended a toleration some time 
longer, which he was prevailed upon to grant, by a letter of 
St Irenaeus, who wrote to him on that subject in his own 
tiame, and in that of his brethren in GauL St Victor died 
soon after this, in the year 201, the ninth of Severos, after he 
had sat ten yeai'S* He is styled a martyr by scnne writers of 

(1) Monti, Cler. Kepr. S. Pauli, S. Th. Prof. Mediolani, DissertAtionea 
Tlieologico historicae tres^ quarum prima propugnat gratiam per se eftl- 
cacem ; Secunda agit de Canonibus vulgd -apostolicis ; Tertia versatur 
scf er dlssidio do oppcrtuno Paschatis celebraadi tempore. Piipiif:, 17(30. 

» ■ ■ I I..III ■ iiiiiiiii««« ■ < II ,1 ■■ „ .-_^ 



4he fiftk 'Age, and in am. ancient pontifical wfit^n in S3Q.' 
Thou^ <5«veni8 eril7;|>iMistied the -edicts for his persecution 
in 2Q2, «everfl} tiChvistians'had suffered iin^ie reign before that 
Ttime, as TiHemont .Temarks%(l') ^. Fa^ ^thin^s St ITictor did 
mot ^%-:die«word, hecsLUte in some Martyrdlogies he i« called 
t«nl7«Qonf<}S8«r,:tkaagk 'his dii^aity^&dizeal exposed 'him to con 
riinual pemecvttioais, for which alone he finight deserve the titk 
«of martyr. .See JSuse&ivis Hist. 1.4,^ 23j; ^Orsi, Berti J>isft. 
^i6t.i;.2,;|>.^6& 

ST, INNOCENT SL, POPE AND CONFESSOR. 

SIe was a native of Alhano, near Rome:; :and up(m rthe death 
;of Pope Anastasius, i& 402, was ananimousljt^chosen to fill the 
pontifical chair. JSe ascended it bj compillsion, .ajad consider- 
ing himself in it with trembling, he never -.ceased to beg of God 
the spirit of his holy wisdom and prudence, which he stood the 
-more in need of, as the times in which he lived were more difli- 
ftcult. Alarie the Goth, .with an array of bal'barians, -threatened to 
•carry desolation over all Italy. The pope exhorted the faithful 
:to receive the scourges of heaven with submission and humility, 
rand undertook several journeys to negotiate a reconciliatiou 
between the emperor .Honori us and Alarie, but in vain. Tlie 
'Goths received a great overthrow from the Roman army com- 
v-manded by StilicQ,.in 403. But Alarie led them a second time 
i<to attempt i;he plunder of Rome ; and because Honorius refused 
*to make him g^erfid of theimperixil army, he took that^eity on 
:lhc 24th of August, 410, and abandoned it to the fury^of hii) 
•soldiers, excepting .the church of SS. Peter and Paul, jto which 
•be granted tthe privilege of a sanctuary. Pope Innocent was 
vat that, time absent with the emperor at Ravenna. The year 
^following, Alanc being dead, his brother-in-law and successor 
Jltulphus again plundered Rome. 

After the departure of the barbarians, the good pope has- 
.lened thither, and by his presence brought comfort and joy to 
that afflicted people* He ;taught .them to draw an advantage 
from their sufferings by (making a good use of them ; and so 
aaiich were the Heathens edified at the patience, resignation, 

. tl ) Mcai. Ecclea. ,t. 3, p. 112. 



3J2 6T. IKNOCEWT I^ P. C [JUL,Y 2& 

and virtue with which the Christians suffered the loss of their 

« 

.goods and whatever was dear, without any murmuring or com- 
plaint, that they came in crowds desiring to be instructed in 
the faith and baptized. The pope laboured incessantly to form 
them a holy people, always occupied in good works. His let- 
ters, especially those to Exuperius, the most holy bishop of 
Toulouse, and Decentius, bishop of Gubbio, in answer to their 
several queries, contain many useful rules, and judicious deci- 
sions. In the former, he says, that communion or absolution is 
never to be denied to dying penitents, that we may not imitate 
the .hardness of the Novatians. In that to Decentius he says, 
that only bishops, who have the sovereignty of the priest- 
hood, can confer the Holy Ghost in confirmation, by anoint- 
ing the foreheads of persons baptized; and that he cannot 
recite the words of the form for fear of discovering the myste- 
ries or sacraments to the infidels. He uses the same precaution 
in speaking of the sacrifice ; so inviolable was the secret with 
which, out of respect, the primitive Christians treated the sa- 
craments. In the same epistle, this pope mentioning the ex- 
treme unction which is given to the sick, he says, it cannot be 
administered to penitents before their I'econciliation, because it 
is a sacrament ; and all sacraments are refused them in that 
state. %This evinces that it was held to be no less properly a 
sacrament than the eucharist. He indeed allows the custom 
that then prevailed for the laity to use the holy oils out of devo- 
tion, but without the sacramental words, and not as a sacrament; 
for being consulted whether bishops could give that sacrament, 
which was usually administered by priests, he proves that 
bishops can do it, because priests can ; consequently, he sup 
poses as undoubted, that only priests, not laymen, can minister 
this holy sacrament. 

When, in 416, the councils of Carthage and Milevum had 
eondemned the Pelagian errors, and wrote to the pope against 
them, the synodal letters of both those councils having been 
drawn up by St. Austin, St Innocent^ in his answer to the 
bishops of the council of Milevum, says, that " all ecclesiastical 
matters throughout the world are, by divine right, to be rcfer'*ed 
to the apostolic see, that is, to St Peter, the author of its name 
z,nd honour." He .commends the bishops of this council for so 



July 28.] st. sampson, b. c. 353' 

doing : ** Following," says he, " the ancient rule, which you 
know with me has been always observed by the whole world.*** 
The confirmation given by Pope Innocent to these two Africaif 
councils being brought to Africa, St. Austin 8aid:(l) " The 
decisions of the two councils have been already sent to the 
apostolic see ; the rescripts are also come from thence. The 
cause is now finished ; would to God that the error may at last 
be at end." St. Innocent closed his life with exerting his zeal 
in defence of divine grace, dying in 417, having been pope fif- 
teen years. See his letters, and the councils, Ceillier, t. 10, p. 
104, and Cuper the Bollandist^ t. 6, Jul. p. 548. 

ST. SAMPSON, B. C. 

He was a child of prayer, and was bom about the year 496, of 
noble parentage, in that part of South Wales which is now 
called Glamorganshire, then in the pountry of the Demetes, 
upon the borders of the Wenetes, who inhabited the province 
called by the Britons Guent, now Monmouthshire. At seven 
years of age he was put under the care of St. Iltutus, a very 
learned abbot in Glamorganshire, and having made great pro- 
gress in learning and virtue, was ordained priest by St. Dubri- 
tius, bishop of Caerleon. In 512 he passed into a neighbouring 
island, where he led an eremitical life, as did several others, 
under the direction of St. Piro, a holy priest. By an order of 
SS. Dubritius and Iltutus he paid a visit to his aged father who 
lay dangerously ill. The saint restored him by his prayers to 
his health, and cowvsrted him and his whole numerous family, 
including his uncles, cousins, and brothers, whom he placed in 

(1) St. Aug. Serin. 131, n. 10. 

• From this example it is manifest, that the African bishops referred 
greater causes, at least those of faith, to the holy see, and in them always 
allowed appeals to it ; though at that time they carried on a contest with 
the Popes Innocent, Zosimus, and Celestine, a-gainst appeals being made 
in lesser causes of personal facts, which it is often difficult to carry on in 
remote courts, and which, if too easy and frequent, are a bar to the 
speedy execution of justice. Yet such appeals or revisions of causes are 
sometimes necessary to hinder crying injustices and oppressions. Whence 
the regulation of the manner of restraining appeals in smaller ecclesias- 
tical causes is r point of discipline ; but the general council of SardicA, 
which was an ai pendix of the council of Nice, declared, that appeals 
nui t be all< we I fri^m the whole world to the bishops of Romei and in 
ihit disci>liii3 tlie i'.V caas soon after acquiesced. 



•everaf mDAaBteneSy BttI his fetlicr and' an imcle- of his own* 
community of hermit^.- IVi 516 He^ made a* voyage iirtb' B-eland^ 
to anitnatse^Iiiiiiseff to fervour by the- example an^ htstraetions^ 
ef many illbstribas saints wHo flbnmBed' tBere, and' alter hi^ 
return' sfiut IHmBeff up^ m a cave- fn ar wilderness^ I\r 520 St- 
Dubri'titts caBed Him'- to a' synod' at Caerleon-, and' in it ondainei^ 
liim bidhop without Being' fixed iti any particular acc^ St^ 
Sampson continued' Iii» former austere manner' of life; abstain-^ 
ing wBoIly from^ fesli; sometimes eating onTy once in two or- 
tliree daysj and' often passmg the whole night in prayer atand- 
ing, thougfii sometimes^ when he watebed the ni^ht he took » 
Kttle resf, Teaning Bi& head against a walli To gain sou^ tc 
God by tike- exercise of the miniBtry wftb which he sew himself 
intrusted^, he passed over into Brittany in France^- witb^ his^ 
father and' bis couBib St, Magloire, and waa follbwed' by St 
Haclbu or Kfafo^ another cousin^ St. Sampson there converted 
many ^Iktersy. raised a d^ead' man to^life; and' wrought many 
other mnracles. Be foimdied » great abbey, which he called 
t>o\e,* and fixed there the episcopal see- which* was before sub* 
ject to Qtddalet^ now St; Ms^c/s^ TLi& see of Dole long en-- 
joyed a metropolitical junsdiction' over all the bishops of Brit- 
tJany.f He subscribed' to Ife second council of Earis, held i» 
557, in the ix^inner following r " I l^mpson, a siiiner; bishop^ 
have consented' and subscribed^'' ^ used to have a cros» car- 
ried before him, as is the custom' of archbishops at* present. He- 
died about the year 564. A considerabfe part of hfs relTca wa* 
translated' to ]^arf«, with those of St. MagToire and' St. Mad'ou;. 
in the- tenth century,, for fear of the inroada of l^e^ Kormans^ 

*' DoTe in- tfieold* Bi-itisfi fenguagfe signiflea a \bw fruitfttr p-faih. 

f Tonrsv which was the metropolis of the province of Armorica trader 
the RomaBB, enjoyed; from the time of St. Martin, the metropoliticai 
juriBdiotiott over Mans, Angers, and' the nine bishoprfcs of Mttany.- 
Sampson tiie Eldisr, bishop of TorK, being expelled bj the Saxons,, came* 
iirto Armorica,. and Ibnnded the see of Dole; in "which he exercised ai 
metropotttieaf jnrisdiction, which King- Hbwel or Rioval obliged hhn to 
assert, because these Britons were an independent people, separate froms 
the Ganls. Swmpson^s two successors, St. Turiave and St. Siunpson, en- 
joyed the same. ITie contest between Tours and Dole was not finished? 
tSil Innocent HI. in 1199; decliired Bole and all the other bishopries off 
Brittany subject to the Archbishop of Tour^v See D« Blorioe, Hbt^ d<f 
BvetiHpa<v p. )-7r ^' 



J JUJLT 29.] 8T, MARTHA, T, 855 

^ Se^ his life in Mabillon. Act Bened. 1 1, p. HS, ai^d Solier the 

^ Bckllandist, t 6, Jul. p. 568. 



r. 

f JULY XXIX. 

I 

; SAINT MARTHA, V. 

^ She was sister to Mary and Lazarus, and lived with them at 

Bethania, a small town two miles distant from Jerusalem, a 

' little beyond mount Olivet. . Our Blessed Redeemer had made 

his residence usually in Galilee, till in the third year of his 
public ministry he preached chiefly in Judaea, during which 
interval he frequented the house of these three holy disciples. 
Martha seems t6 have been the eldest, and to have had the 
chief care and direction of the household. It appears from the 
history of the resurrection of Lasarus that their family was of 
principal note in the country. In the first visit, as it seems, 
with which Jesus honoured them,(l) St. Luke tells us(2) that 
St. Martha showed great solicitude to entertain and serve him. 
She forgot the privilege of her rank and riches, and would not 
leave so great an honour to servants only, but was herself very 
busy in preparing every thing for so great a guest and his holy 
company. Mary sat all the time at our Saviour's feet, feeding 
her soul with his heavenly doctrine. In this she found such 
inexpressible sweetness, and so great spiritual advantage, that 
she forgot and contemned the whole world, and would suffer 
nothing to draw her from her entertainment with her God, or 
make her lose any one of those precious moments. At his 
sacred discourses her heart was inflamed, her pure soul seemed 
to melt in holy love, and in a total forgetfulness of all other 
things she said to herself, with the spouse in the Canticles : 
My beloved to me^ and I to hivtiy who feedeth among the 
lilies ;(3) that is, with chaste souls, or among the flowers of 
virtues. St. Austin observes that this house represents to us 
the whole family of God on earth. In it no one is idle, but his 
. servants have their different employments, some in the con- 
^ templative life, as recluses ; others in the active ; as, first, those 

Cn luke X. 88 (2) Ibid. (S) Cant^ li* 



356 ST. MABTHA, V. [JuLT 29. 

who labour for the salvation of souls in the exterior functions 
of the pastoral charge ; secondly, those who, upon pure motives 
of charitj, serve the poor or the sick ; and, lastly, all who look 
upon their lawful profession in the world as the place for which 
God had destined them, and the employment which he has 
given them ; and who faithfully pursue its occupations with a 
view purely to accomplish the divine will, and acquit them- 
selves of every duty in the order in which God has placed them 
in this world. He is the greater saint, whatever his state of 
life may be, whose love of God and his neighbour is more 
pure, more ardent, and more perfect ; for charity is the soul 
and form of Christian perfection. 

But it has been disputed whether the contemplative or the 
active life be in itself the more perfect. St. Thomas answers 
this question,(i) proving from the example of Christ and his 
apostles, that the mixed life, which is made up of both, is the" 
most excellent. This is the apostolic life, with the care of 
souls, if in it the external functions of instructing, assisting, and 
comforting others, which is the most noble object of charity, be 
supported by a constant perfect spirit of prayer and contem- 
plation. In order to this, a long and fervent religious retire- 
ment ought to be the preparation which alone can form the 
perfect spirit of this state ; and the same must be constantly 
nourished and improved by a vehement love and frequent 
practice of holy retirement, and a continued recollection, as 
Christ during his ministry often retired to the mountains to 
pray ; for that pastor who suffers the spirit of prayer to lan- 
guish in his soul, carries about a dead soul in a living body, to 
use the expression of St. Bonaventure.(2) The like interior 
spirit must animate ; and some degree of assiduity in the like 
exercises, as circumstances will allow, must support those who 
are engaged in worldly employments, and those who devote 
themselves to serve Christ's most tender and afflicted mem- 
ber3, the poor and the sick, as Martha served Christ himself. 

"With so great love and fervour did Martha wait on our Re- 
deemer, that, as we cannot doubt, she thought that if the whole 
world were occupied in attending so great a guest, all would be 

(1) 3, pp. 9, 40, a. 1. ad 2 et 3. Item 2, 2d8e, q. 182, art. I et 2, in corp. 
s:2) L. de Perfect. Religios. 



M JdLT 29.] ST. MAKTHA, V." . 357 

^^ too little. Slie wished that all men would employ their hands, 

^* feet, and hearts, all their faculties and senses, with their whole 

'"' strength, in servinj^ with her their gracious Creator, made for 

i^''- us our brother. Therefore, sweetly complaining to him, she 

' •• desired him to bid her sister Maiy to rise up and help her. 

^^' Our meek and loving Lord was well pleased with the solicitude 

■f^' and earnestness, full of affection and devotion, wherewith 

^'^ Martha waited on him ; yet he commended more the quiet 

^ repose with which Mary attended only to that which is of the 

iS greatest importance, the spiritual improvement of her soul, 

^> Martha, Martha, said he, thou art careful and troubled about 

many things ; but one thing is necessary. If precipitation or 
S' too great eagerness had any share in her service, this would 

? have been an imperfection ; which, nevertheless, does not ap- 

pear. Christ only puts Martha in mind that though corporal 
.0 duties ought not to be neglected, and if sanctified by a perfect 

{ intention of charity are most excellent virtues, yet spiritual 

t functions, when they come in competition, are to be preferred. 

,: The former, indeed, become spiritual, when animated by a per- 

j feet spirit and recollection ; but this is often much impaired \y 

the distraction of the mind, and in the course of action. In 
\ our external employments, which we direct with a pure inten- 

I tion to fulfil the divine will, we imitate the angels when they 

are employed by God in being our guardians, or in other ex- 
ternal functions with which God hath charged them ; but as 
i"i.ese blessed spirits in such employs never lose sight of God, 
so ought we in all our actions continue, at least virtually, to 
adore and praise his holy name ; but herein the eye of the soul 
is often carried off, or its attention much weakened. Whereas, 
in heavenly contemplation, the heart is wholly taken up in 
God, and more perfectly united to him by adoration and love. 
This is the novitiate of heaven, where it is the uninterrupted 
occupation of the blessed. In this sense Christ so highly com- 
mends the choice of Mary, affirming that her happy employ- 
ment would never be taken from her. He added : " One thing 
is necessary ;" which words some explain as if he had said, "A 
/ittle is enough, one dish suffices ;" but the word necessary 
determines the sense rather to be, as St. Austin, St. Berna-d, 



MaUonatus, Grotius^ and others expeixdid Ity etemnl ealTatioa 
K our onty aflsir. 

Another instance which shows how dear this deyottt famxij 
was to our dmne Saviour, is the raising of Lazarns to Hfe. 
When he fell sick, the pioos sisters sent to inform Christ, who 
was then absent in Galilee. Thej said no noiore in their mes-- 
sage than this: He w&om thou lowesi is sick. Thej knew very 
well that this was exkough; and that his tender bowels would be 
moved to compassion bj the bare representation of their 
rnlamitj. It was not to remove our eorporal miseries that 
Christ eame from heaven, and died and suffered so mueh ; th» 
was not the object which drew down this Almighty Physieiaci 
among ns. If, in his mortal life on earth, he healed the sick 
and raised the dead, by these miracles he wonld manifest, as hj 
sensible tokens, the i^iritnal cures which he desired to work in 
our souls. We groan under the weight of innumerable and the 
most dreadful spiritual miseries. Our tender Bedeemer know» 
their horrible depth and endless extent ; but he would have u» 
to conceive a just sense of them, to acknowledge them, and 
earnestly to implore his aid ; for this he sheds the rays of his 
light upon our blind souls, and rouses ub by his repeated 
graces. The first step towards a deliverance is, that we eon* 
fess, with a feeling sense, our extreme baseness and ingratitude, 
and our weakness and total incapacity of doing any thing of 
ourselves towards our recovery; but we have a physician 
'infinitely tender and powerful. To him then we must con- 
'tinualiy lay open our distress,, and with deep compunction dis- 
play our miseries before his holy eyes^ earnestly striving by 
this dumb eloquence to move him to pity ; exposing to him that 
we whom he loveth still as the work of his hands, as the price 
of his blood, lie ingulfed in unspeakable miseries^ Thus we 
must entreat him, with tears and loud cries of our hearts^ to 
look down on his image in our souls, now disfigured and sullied 
with sin j on his kingdom left desoiate by the tyranny of the 
devil and our passions ; on the vineyard which himself had 
planted, adorned, and f^ced, but which is laid waste by mer- 
ciless robbers and enemies ; and that he would stretch out his 
almighty hand to repair these breaches, and save us. So long 



,j,^jtil> < 



I AS Kfe lasts we can never be sure that we shall find raercy, cr 

rest secure of the iesne of our great trial upon which our 

if e tern it J depends ; so long, therefore, we ought never to cease, 

I with most earnest criea, to implore the demencj of our Judge, 

I laying open our spiritual miseries to him in these worda of i\\a 

► two STsters : " Behold he, whom thou lavest, is sinking trader 

the weight of his evils,** and h^^ him to remember his ancieni 

love and mercies towards us* We ought also m corporal 

distempers to address ourselves ta God with the like words^ 

begging with Martha oar own or our brother's corpoi-al healtlt^ 

if this may be expedient to ocnr souls, and conducive to the 

divine honour. 

In all these petitions we ought to implore the joint suppli- 
cations of the saints, as at the entreaties of his sisters Christ 
raised Lazarus. Having received their message, be wanted no 
other prompter than that of his own compassion and affeetion ; 
an emblem of the paternal mercy with which he draws to him- 
self, and receives penitent sinners. Had the prodigal son 
offered any plea of merits or deserts, he bad never deserved ta 
find favour ; but he knew the goodness and tenderness of hicf 
father, who had with restless nights waited with impatience to 
see him return. The tender parent wanted no motives drawn 
from other ohgects or things without himself. The paternal 
affection within his own breast pleaded in favour of bis disobe- 
dient child. By this his very bowels yearned to embrace him 
again^ and raise him from spiritual death to life. This same 
tenderness and compassion in Christ were the grounds of th« 
sisters' confidence. Jesus, however, defended setting out two o? 
three days, that his glory might be the more manifested by th;^ 
greater evidence of the miracle, and by the trial of the virtue 
and confidence of the two holy sisters. When be arrived at 
Bethania, Martha went first out to meet and welcome bim ; 
and then called her sister Mary. The presence of Jesus brings 
every blessing and comfort ; and, by it, the sisters had the joy 
to see their brother again restored to life when he had been 
ibur days in the grave. 

Christ was again at Bethania, at the house of Simon the 
Leper, six days before his passion. Lazarus was one of the 
guests* Martha waited at table ; and Mary poured a box of 



860 8T. MARTHA, V. [J0I-Y'29. 

costly ointmeiits on our Lord's feet, which she wiped with the 
hair of her head.(l) Judas Iscariot complained of this waste, 
saying that the ointment might have been sold, and the pricf 
given to the poor. Not that he had any regard for the poo", 
but, bearing the common purse, he converted things sometimes 
to his own use, being a thief. How imperceptible a vice is 
covetousness, and how subtle in excuses to deceive itself! 
Charity interprets the actions of others in the best part ; but 
passion hurries men into rash judgments. Judas condemned 
the most heroic virtue and devotion of a saint; but Jesus 
undertook her defence. He was pleased not with the ointment, 
but with the love and devotion of his fervent servant, which 
he suffered her to satisfy by that action, which he received as 
performed for the embalming of his body, his death being then 
at hand. He, moreover, declared that this good work which 
Judas condemned, should be commended to the edification of 
his servants over the whole world wherever bis gospel should 
be preached. 

St. Martha seems to have been one of those holy women who 
attended Christ during his passion, and stood under his cross. 
After his ascension, she came to Marseilles, and ended her life 
in Provence, where her body was found at Tarascon, soon after 
the discovery of that of St. Mary Magdalen. It lies in a mag- 
nificent subterraneous chapel of the stately collegiate church 
at Tarascon, which is dedicated to G-od in her honour. King 
Lewis XI., gave a rich bust of gold, in which the head of the 
saint is kept. 

We have all, like St. Martha, one only necessary affair ; that 
for which alone God created and redeemed us ; for which he 
has wrought so many wonderful mysteries in our favour, and 
upon which the dreadful alternative of sovereign and everlast- 
ing happiness or misery depends. This is, that we refer even 
all our worldly employments and all that we do, to glorify God, 
eo fulfil his will and t^o save our souls. In this, all our thoughts, 
desires, and enterprises ought to centre : this is the circle in 
which we must shut ourselves up, and never think of moving 
out of. Every one ought sincerely to say with an ancienf. 
writer : " I have but one only affair ; and I care for nothing 
( 1 ) Matt, xxri ; John xti. 



July 29.] st. ifviLLiAM, b. c. 361 

else onlj lest any other thing should take off any part of my at- 
tention from this my only business."* What account will they 
be able to give to themselves or to their Judge at the last day, 
who make vanity, pastimes, and idle employments, the sole busi- 
ness of their life ? or they who toil and slave much in bustling 
through the world, seeming to neglect nothing but their only 
affair ? 

SS. SIMPLICIUS AND FAUSTINUS, BROTHERS, 
AND BEATRICE, THEIR SISTER, MM. 

The two brothers were cruelly tormented, and at length be- 
] leaded at Rome in the persecution of Diocletian, in the year 
303. Their sister Beatrice took up their bodies out of the 
Tiber, and gave them burial. She lay herself concealed seven 
months in the house of a virtuous widow called Lucina, with 
whom she spent her time, night and day in fervent prayer, and 
in the exercise of other good works. She was discovered and 
impeached by a pagan kinsman, who designed to possess himself 
of her estate, which was contiguous to his own ; she resolutely 
protested to the judge that she would never adore gods of wood 
and stone, and was strangled by his order in prison the night 
following. Lucina buried her body near her brothers on the 
side of the highway to Porto, in the cemetery called Ad Ursum 
Pileatum. Pope Leo translated their relics into a church which 
he built to their honour in the city ; they now lie in that of St, 
Mary Major. 

With them is commemorated St. Felix, pope and martyr, 
whose name is found in the Martyrologies on this day. 

ST. WILLIAM, BISHOP OF S. BRIEUC IN BRIT- 
TANY, C. 

St. William Pinchon, of an illustrious family in Brittany, 
was, by the innocence of his manners, his admirable meekness, 
humility, chastity, mortification, charity and devotion, an ac- 
complished model of all virtues. He received the tonsure, and i 
some years after the holy orders of deacon and priest, at the i 

* XJnicum mihi negotium est ; aliud non euro quam ne curem. Tert. I 

t. de Pallio, c. 5. * 



haiids oT JossoEn, bishop of S. Brienc ; «erved that church »n- 
deiT his tvo successors, Peter and Sylvester, and succeeded the 
latter in the episcopal dignity ahovt the year 1220. The poor 
were hts treasurers, and net content to exiiaast on them what- 
ever he possessed, he often borrowed great stores of corn awl 
other neeessarj provisions for their relief. The hare hoards 
were usaalij his bed ; for his domestics discovered that he never 
made use of the soft bed which they prepared for him, The as- 
fiiduous application to all the functions of his charge, was n© 
hinderance to hts nourishing within himself the spirit of recol- 
lection and holy frsLjer. He died about the year 1234, on the 
:29tli of #uly, on which his name occurs in the Roman Martyr- 
«logy. His body was deposited in Ms oadiedral, and taken up 
incorrupt in 1284. He was oanonized by Innocent lY. in 1253, 
^according to Baronius. .See Ii^neaii« ISTies des SS. de Bre- 
^agne^p. 235. 

-ST. OLAUS OR OLAVE, IKLPPS OF NORWAY. M. 

He was son -of Herald -Grenscius, prinoe of Westfdd in Nor- 
way, by his wife, Asta, daughter of <3'ulbrand Kuta, governor 
of Gulbrand's Dale or Valley. He delivered his country from 
tlie tyranny under which the S>vedes 4ind Banes had for some 
(time hdd it, whilst Norway was divided "between Sweno, king 
-of Denmark, Olave Scot-'Konung, eon of Eric, king of Sweden, 
:and Eric, son of Hacon Earl of Norway* In 1M3, he sailed to 
3iln gland, and successfully assisted king Ethdred against the 
Danes after the deaCh of Sueno car Swayn tfheir^dng. He after- 
wards waged war agjanst daus "Scot-Konung, ting of "Sweden, 
till, making an advantageous peace, he todk to wife the daugh- 
ter of that king»(l^ These two princes .*%aut that time intro- 
•duced the Eomescot, a ^mall anniial tribute yeai^y 'to be ^paid to 
the apost<*lic see.* St. Oiave brought over from Eiigland seve- 
Tal pious and learned priests -and monks, one df whom, named 
Crrimkele, was chosen bishop ^ Dronthcdm, liis capitaL The 

(1) See the Chronicle of Norwwy %y "Sbojto €tiM»le«m, first ma^fftnite 
-4n the republic of Icdand m 1 240. 

*• Scot and lot are originally Swedish or Teutonic words, signifying 
tax. Romescot is a tax for Rome, and Scot-Konung, the Mug's .tax. -Sua 
Baron llolberg, and Mess. Scoudia illustrata, X, I. 



tiotj king did notMng witkcmt the adviee of tMs pre^tto, aztd bf 
iu8 counsels published many wholesome laws, aad abolished such 
ancient laws and customs as were contrarfr td tbe Gospel; 
which he did not onlj in Norway, biat also in tiie isles of Ork- 
ney and of Iceland ; though the entire conquest of Orkney was 
reserved to his son Magnas, who also subdued the isle of Mdji, 
as Camden relates from the ancieat Cknmicle of Man. 

Our religions king having settled his dominions in peace, set 
tiittiself to extirpate out of them the abominable superstitions of 
idolatry. He travelled in person from town to town, exhorting 
his subjects to open the eyes of their souls to the bright light of 
faith. A company of zealous preachers attended him, and he 
demolished in many places the idolatrous temples. The hea- 
thens rebelled, and with the assistance of Canutus the Great, 
defeated and expelled him. St. Olave fled into Russia, whence 
lie soon after returned, and raased an army in order to recover 
his kingdom, but was slain 1^ his rebeHions and inMd subjects 
in a battle fought at Stiohstadt, north of Drontheim, on the 
:29th of July, 1030, having reigned »xteen years. These rebels 
«eem to have been in the interest of Canute the Great, who ar- 
rived from England in Norway, took possession of that king- 
dom, and left his nephew Haokm viceroy, but he being soon 
after drowned at sea, 'Canute caade liis son Sweno viceroy of 
Noi*way. St. Olave^s body was lionourably buried at Dron- 
theim, and the year following bishop Grimkeie commanded him 
to be honoured in that church among the saints with the title 
of martyr. His son Magnus was called home from Russia in 
i'035, and restored to the throne. Sweno, who saw himself en- 
tirely abandoned, ^d into Sweden. Magnus exceedingly pro- 
moted tbe devotiea of the people to the memory of his father, 
the martyr, who was chosen titular saint <of the cathedral ot 
Drontheim. This church was rebuilt with such splendour and 
magnificence, as to have been the glory and pride cf all the 
North. Munster kas given us a minute description of it, after 
Lutheranism was introduced 4 but it was soon after burnt by 
lightning, Tlie body cf St. Olave was found incon-upt in 1098; 
and again when the Lutherans in 1541, plundered the shrine, 
which was adorned with gold and jew^s of an immense vahi^, 
4 treasure no where <^qualled in the North. The ship whh:^ 



64 SS. ABDON AND SXNNEN, MM. iJcLV 30. 

famed the greater part of this sacrilegious booty pexiskod at 
sea in the road to Denmark ; the rest was robbed at land, so 
that nothing of it came into the king of Denmark's hands. The 
Lutherans treated the saint's body with respect, and left it in 
the same place where the shrine had stood, in the inner wooden 
case, till in 1568 thej decently buried it in the same cathedral. 
A shirt or inner garment of St Olave's is shown at St Victor's 
in Paris. His shrine became famous bj many miracles, and he 
was honoured with extraordinary devotion throughout all the 
northern kingdoms, and was titular saint of several churches in 
England and Scotland. He was called by our ancestors St. 
Clave, and more frequently St Tooley ; but in the Norway 
Chronicles Claf Haraldson, and Olaf Helge or the Holy. See 
Saxo-6rammaticus, Hist Dan. 1. 10, fol. 94, 95, 96. Adam 
Brem. Hist. EccL 1. 2, c. 43. The Iceland historians whom 
Mallet regards as far more accurate, especially TorfsBus, in the 
last century, in his Series regum Danias ; Snorrow Sturleson, 
&c. See also Bosch the Bollandistj t 7, Jul. p. 87. Mallet, 
Hist de Dannemarc. &c 

ST. CLAUS, KING OF SWEDEN, 

Was converted to the faith by St. Anscharius, and for his zeal 
in propagating the same, and because in the time of a great fa- 
mine he could not be compelled to offer sacrifice to the idols of 
Upsal, was sacrificed to them by the rebellious inhabitants of 
Birca, at that time the usual residence of the kings of Sweden. 
From the ruins of Birca, Stockholm took its rise, though built 
at a considerable distance from it SeePuffendorf 's History of 
Sweden, t. 1, p. 70. 



JULY XXX. 

SS. ABDON AND SENNEN, MM. 

They were Persians, but coming to Rome, courageously con- 
fessed the faith of Christ in the persecution of Decius in 250. 
They were cruelly tormented, but the more their bodies were 
mangled and covered with ghastly wounds, the more were their 
Bouls adorned and beautified with divine grace, and rendered 



JTULT 30«] S8. ABBOir AffD SSNIfSiry BfBS. ' 365 

glorious in the sight of heaven. The Christians at Rome did 
Aot treat them as strangers, but as brethren united to them in 
^e hope of the same blessed country ; and after their death 
carefully deposited their bodies in the house of a subdeacon 
called Quirinus. In the reign of Constantine the Great, their 
relics were removed into the ancient burying place of Pontian, 
80 called from some rich man who built it : called also, from 
some sign, Ad Ursum Pileatum. It afterwards received its 
name from SS. Abdon and Sennon. It was situated near the 
Tiber, on the road to Porto near the gates of Rome. The 
images of these martyrs with Persian bonnets and crowns on 
their heads, and their names, are to be seen there at this day in 
ancient sculpture.(l) SS. Abdon and Sennen are mentioned 
in the ancient Liberian • Calendar, and in other Martyrologies ; 
though their modern acts deserve no notice, as Cardinal Noris 
has demonstrated.(2) 

The martyrs preferred torments and death to sin, because 
the love of God above all things reigned in their breasts, " We 
say we are Christians," says TertuUian ;(3) " we proclaim it 
to the whole world, even under the hands of the executioner, 
and in the midst of all the torments you inflict upon us to com- 
pel us to unsay it. Tom and mangled, and weltering in our 
blood, we cry out as loud as we are able to cry. That we are 
worshippers of God through Christ." Upon which Mr. Reeves 
observes, that no other religion ever produced any considerable 
number of martyrs except the true one. Do we ever read of 
any generation of men so greedy of martyrdom, who thought 
it long till they were upon the rack, and were so patient, so 
cheerful and steadfast under the most intolerable torments ? So- 
crates was the only philosopher who can be said to have died for 
his doctrine ; and what a restless posture of mind does he be- 
tray, who was esteemed the best and the wisest of the heathens I 
With what misgivings, and fits of hope and fear, does he deliver 
himself in that most famous discourse, supposed to have been 
made Ibj him a little before his death, about a future state ?(4) 
And neither Phaedo, Cebes, Crito, Simmias, nor any other of 

(1) Aringhi Boma Subterranea, 1. I, c. 25. 

(2) Koris, Diss. 3, de Epochis Syro-MiEU^onnm. 

CS) Apol. c. 21. (4) Plato in Phado. 

VOL. vn, 2 A 



366 »T. JULITTA, M. [JtTLT 30 

his greatest friends who were present at Iris death, dunst main* 
tarn either his innocence, or that doctrine for which he died, in 
the Areopagus. With what reserre did Plato himself dogma- 
tize concerning the gods whom he worshipped in puhKc, bTil 
denied in private ! How did he dodge about, disguise himself, 
and say and nnsay the same exceflent tmtiis ! Only the Chris- 
tians suffered at this rate, and they held on suflering for sereral 
hundred years together, tifl they had subdued the world by dying 
for their religion. What cocdd engage such a number of men 
m such a religion, and support them in it, in defiance of deadi 
in the most shocking forms, but eTident tnxth, and ft snperiDr 
grace and strength from above? 

ST. JULITTA, M. 

The Emperor Dioclesian, by the first edicts which he issueil 
out against the Christians in 303, declared them infamous, and 
debarred from all protection of the hiws, and from all the privi- 
leges of citizens. By thus putting arms into the hands of every 
one against them, the' tyrant hoped to see their very name ex- 
tinguished ; but he was not sensible that this divine religion 
then triumphs when its professors seem to be overcome by death* 
and that by it human weakness is made victorious over the 
power of the world and helL Of this St Julitta is an instance. 
She was a rich lady of Caesarea, in Cappadocia, and was pos- 
sessed of many faims, cattle, goods, and slaves. A powerful 
man of the town, by open violence, got possession of a consi- 
derable part of her estate ; and when he could not otherwise 
maintain his suit before the pretor, charged her with being a 
Christian. The judge caused fire and incense to be immediately 
brought into the court, and commanded her to offer sacrifice to 
the idols ; but she courageously made him this answer : " May 
my estates perish, or be disposed of to strangers ; may I also 
lose my life, and may this my body be cut in pieces, rather 
than that by the least impious word I should offend God who 
made me. If you take from me a little portion of this earth, I 
shall gain heaven for it." The judge was extremely exaspe- 
rated at the undaunted resolution with which she spoke, and 
without more ado confirmed to the usurper the estates to which 
he unjustly laid claim, and condemned the servant of Christ to 



JuiiT 31.] ST. IQKAtlUS, c. 367 

the flames. Upon bearing this seiitence, a kind of heavenly 
joy and most amiable cheerfulness flushed her countenance^ 
which she could not refrain from expressing by continual 
thanksgiving to God to her last breath. She exhorted the 
Christians in the most moving manner to constancy and fer- 
vour. The Pagans were amazed to see a lady of her rank, age» 
and fortune, possessed of all the advantages necessary to please 
the world, and yet in a condition to enjoy all that is in it most 
flattering, to contemn all this, and life itself, with such an 
heroic constancy. 

When all things were ready for the execution, Julitta laid 
herself cheerfully upon the pile, and there expired, being, as 
it seems, stifled by the smoke*; for the flame rising in an arched 
vault round her body, did not touch it, and the Christians took 
it up entire. It was afterwards interred in the porch of the 
principal church in the city ; and St. Basil, speaking of this 
treasure about the year 375, wrote as follows : " It enriches 
with blessings both the place and those who come to it" He 
assures us that "the earth which received the body of this 
blessed woman sent forth a spring of most pleasant water, 
whereas all the neighbouring waters are brackish and salt. This 
water preserves health, and relieves the sick.** Both the Greeks 
and Latins honour St. Julitta on this day. See St. BasiVs ho* 
aiily on St. Julitta, t 2, p. 33, hom. 5 ; also in Kuinart's col- 
lection^ p. 515. 



JULY XXXL 
SAINT IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA, C. 

FOUNDER OF THS BOCIEtY OF JESUS. 

Hl« Bfe was written by F. Lewis Gonzales or GonzSlvo, who was a lonjf " 
time the saint's oonliessor, and died at Lisbon in 1575 ; and again by 
Ribadeneira, who had intimately conversed with the saint, and died at 
Ikiadiid in 161 1. Jtis elegantly compiled in Latin by Mafiei, who died 
at TlyoII in 1603, m Italian by Bartoli, at Rome, about 1650 ; and in 
Tttneh by Bouhours, one of the ablest and most jadicioas of the mo*. 
dm French critics in polite literature, who died at Fans in 1704. 
Pinios the Bollandist gives the original Hres, Julij, t. 7» p. 409, and 
adds the history of many miracles wrought by the intercession of this 
saint ; also, Bi^et. 

A. D. 1556. 

Tire conversion of manj barbarous nations, several heretoforo 



868 ST. iQSATivs, c. [July 3L 

imknown to us, both in the most remote eastern and western 
hemisphere; the education of youth in learning and^piety, the 
instruction of the ignorant, the improvement of all the sciences, 
and the reformation of the manners of a great part of Christen- 
dom, is the wonderful fruit of the zeal with which this glorious 
saint devoted himself to labour in exalting the glory of God, 
find in spreading over the whole world that fire whic}i Chiist 
himself came to kindle on earth. St Ignatius was bom in 
1491, in the castle of Loyola, in Guipuscoa, a part of Biscay, 
that reaches to the Fyrenean mountains. His father, Don Ber- 
tram, was lord of Ognez and Loyola, head of one of the most 
ancient and noble families of that country. His mother, Mary 
Saez de Balde, was not less illustrious by her extraction. They 
had three daughters and eight sons. The youngest of all these 
was Liigo or Ignatius ; he was well shaped, and in his childhood 
gave proofs of a pregnant wit and discretion above his years ; 
was affable and obliging, but of a warm or choleric disposition, 
and had an ardent passion for glory. He was bred in the court 
of Ferdinand V., in quality of page to the king, under the care 
and protection of Antony Manriquez, duke of Najara, grandee 
of Spain, who was his kinsman and patron ; and who, perceiv- 
ing his inclinations, led him to the army, took care to have him 
taught all the exercises proper to make him an accomplished 
officer. The love of glory and the example of his elder brothers 
who had signalized themselves in the wars of Naples, made him 
impatient till he entered the service. He behaved with great 
valour and conduct in the army, especially at the taking of Na- 
jara, a small town on the frontiers of Biscay ; yet he generously 
declined taking any part of the booty in which he might have 
challenged the greater share. He hated gaming as an offspring 
of avarice, and a wurce of quarreb and other evils ; was dexte- 
rous in the management of affairs, and had an excellent talent 
in making up differences among the soldiers. He was gene- 
rous, even towards enemies, but addicted to gallantry, and full 
of the maxims of worldly honour, vanity, and pleasures. Though 
he had no tincture of learning, he made tolerable good verses in 
Spanish, having a natural genius for poetry. A poem which ho 
composed in praise of St. Peter was much commended. 

Charles V ^ who had succeeded King Ferdinand, was chosen 



JtTLT 3L] ST. IGNATIUS^ C 369 

emperor, and obliged to go into Gnermany. Fmnciti I., king of 
France, a martial prince, having been his competitor for the 
empire, resented his disappointment, and became an implacable 
enemy to the emperor and the house of Austria. He declared 
war against Charles, with a view to recover Navarre, of which 
Ferdinand had lately dispossessed John of Albert, and which 
Charles still held, contrary to the treaty of Noyon, by which he 
was obliged to restore it in six months. Francis, therefore, in 
1521, sent a great army into Spain, under the command of 
Andrew de Foix, younger brother of the famous Lautrec, who, 
passing the Pyreneans^ laid siege to Pampeluna, the capital of 
Navarre. Ignatius had been left there by the viceroy, not to 
command, but to encourage the garrison. He did all that lay 
in his power to persuade them to defend the city, but in vain. 
However, when he saw them open the gates to the enemy, to 
save his own honour, he retired into the citadel with one only 
soldier who had the heart to follow him. The garrison of this 
fortress deliberated likewise whether they should surrender ; but 
Ignatius encouraged them to stand their ground. The French 
attacked the place with great fury, and with their artillery 
made a wide breach in the wall, and attempted to take it by 
assault. Ignatius appeared upon the breach, at the head of the 
bravest part of the garrison, and, with his sword in his hand, 
endeavoured to drive back the enemy ; but, in the heat of the 
combat, a shot from a cannon broke from the waU a bit of 
stone, which struck and bruised his left leg ; and the ball itself 
in the rebound broke and shivered his right leg. The garrison 
seeing him fall, surrendered at discretion. 

The French used their victory with moderation, and treated 
the prisoners well, especially Ignatius, in consideration of his 
quality and valour. They carried him to the general's quarters, 
jind soon after sent him, in a litter carried hy two men^ to the 
castle of Loyola, which was not far from Pampeluna. Being 
arrived there he felt great pain ; for the bones had been ill set, 
as is often the case in the hurry after a battle, The surgeons 
therefore judged it necessary to break his leg again, which he 
suffered without any concern. But a violent fever followed the 
second setting, which was attended with dangerous symptoms, 
and reduced him to an extreme degree of weakness^ so that the 



3(70 ST.. IGHATIUS, C. [Jl3I*Y 31. 

phvaiciaDs declared that be ooulcl not live many ^ys. He je» 
ceivod the sacrament on the eve of the feast of SS. Peter and 
Paal, and it was believed he could not hold out till the next 
mornings Nevertheless, Grod, who had great designs oi mevcj 
upon him, was pleased to restore him to his health in the f^ 
lowing manner : Ignatius^ always had a singular devotion to St. 
Peter, and imploiied his intercession in his present distress with 
great confidence. In the night, he thought he saw in a dream 
that apostle touch him, and cure him. When ha awoke he 
found himself out of danger; his pains left him, and his 
strength began to return, so that he ever after looked upon this 
recovery as miraculous ; yet he still retained the spirit of the 
world. After the second settuig of his leg, the end of a bone 
stuck out under his knee, which was a visible deformity. Though 
the surgeons told him the operation would be very painful, this 
protuberance he caused to be cut off, naerely that his boot and 
stockings might sit handsomely ; and he would neither be bound 
nor held, and scarcely ever changed countenance whilst the bone 
was partly sawed and partly cut off, though the pain must have 
been excessive. Because his right leg remained sh<Mi;er than 
the left, he would be for many days together put upon a kind 
of rack, and with an iron engine he violently stretched and 
drew out that leg ; but all to little purpose, for he remained 
lame his whole life after. 

During the cure of his knee he was confined to his bed, 
though otherwise in perfect health, and finding the time tedious, 
he called for some book of romances, for he had been alwaya 
much delighted with fabulous histories of knight-errantry. 
None such being then found in the castle of Loyola, a book of 
of the lives of our Saviour, and of the saints, was brought 
liim. He read them first only to pass away the time, but aiter- 
wards began to relish them, and to spend whole days in read- 
ing them. He chiefly admired in the saints their love of soli- 
tude and of the cross* He considered among the anchorets 
many persons of quality who buried themselves aUve in caves 
and dens, pale with fasting, and covered with haircloth ; and 
he said to himself: ^' These men were of the same frame I am 
of ; why then should not I do what they have done ?" In the 
fervour of his good resolutions he thought of visiting the Holy 



JCLT 31.] ST. IGNATIUS, C 371 

Land, and becoming a hermit ; but these pious motions soon 
vanishe4 ; ^^^ his passion for glory, and a secret inclination 
for a rich lady in Castile, with a view to marriage, again filled 
his mind with thoughts of the world ; till returning to the lives 
of the saints he perceived in his own heart the emptiness of all 
worldly glory, and that only God could content the soul. 
This vicis^tude and fluctuation of mind continued some time ; 
but he observed this difference, that the thoughts which were 
from God filled his soul with consolation, peace, and tranquil- 
lity ; whereas the others brought indeed some sensible delight^ 
but left a certain bitterness and heaviness in the heart This 
mark he lays down in his book of Spiritual Exercises, as the 
ground of the rules for the discernment of the Spirit of God, 
and the world in all the motions of the soul ; as does Cardinal 
Bona, and all other writers who treat of the discernment of 
spirits in the interior life. Taking at last a firm resolution to 
imitate the saints in their heroic practice of virtue, he began to 
treat his body with all the rigour it was able to bear ; he rose 
at midnight, and spent his retired hours in weeping for his sins. 
One night, being prostrate before an image of the Blessed 
Virgin, in extraordinary sentiments of fervour, he consecrated 
himself to the service of his Bedeemer, under her patronage, 
and vowed an inviolable fidelity. When he had ended his 
prayer he heard a great noise ; the house shook, the windows 
of his chamber were broken, and a rent was made in the wall 
which remains to this day, says the latest writer of his life. 
God might by this sign testify his acceptance of his sacrifice ; 
as a like sign happened in the place where the faithful were as- 
sembled after Christ's ascension,(l) and in the prison of Paul 
and Silas ;(2) or this might be an effect of the rage of the de- 
vil. Another night Ignatius saw the Mother of God environed 
with Gght, holding the infant Jesus in her arms ; this vision re- 
plenished his soul with spiritual -delight, and made all sensual 
pleasure and worldly objects insipid to him ever after. The 
saint^s eldest broker, who was then, by the death of their fa- 
ther, lord of Loyola, endeavoured to detain him ii> the world, 
and to persuade him not to throw away the great advantages of 
the honour and reputation which his valour had gained hinu 

(1) Acts a. C2) Acts xvi. 26. 



S72 ST. lOJrAMtS, C IJULY 3U 

But Ignatius, being cured of his wounds, under pretence of 
paying a visit to the Duke of Najara, who had often come to 
see him during his illness, and who lived at Navarret, turned 
another way, and sending his two servants back from Navarret 
to Loyola, went to Montserrat. This was a great abbey of 
near three hundred Benedictin monks, of a reformed austere in- 
stitute, situate on a mountain of difficult access, about four 
leagues in circumference and two leagues high, in the diocess 
of Barcelona. The monastery was first founded for nuns by 
tlie sovereign counts of Barcelona about the year 880, but wa» 
given to monks in 990. It has been much augmented by seve- 
ral kings of Spain, and is very famous for a miraculous image 
of the Blessed Virgin, and a great resort of pilgrims. 

There . lived at that time in this monastery a monk of great 
sanctity, named John Chanones, a Frenchman, who being for- 
merly vicar-general to the bishop of Mirepoix, in the thirty- 
first year of his age, resigned his ecclesiastical preferments^ and 
took the monastic habit in this place. He lived to the age of 
^ghty-eight years, never eating any fiesh, watching great part 
of the night in prayer, dividing his whole time between hea- 
venly contemplation and the service of his neighbour; and 
giving to all Spain an example of the most perfect obedience, 
humility, charity, devotion, and all other virtues. To this ex- 
perienced director Ignatius addressed himself, and after his 
preparation was three days in making to him a general confes- 
sion, which he often interrupted by the abundance of his tears* 
He made a vow of perpetual chastity, and dedicated himself 
with great fervour to the divine service. At his first coming 
to this place he had bought, at the village of Montserrat, a 
long coat of coarse cloth, a girdle, a pair of sandals, a wallet^ 
und a pilgrim's staff, intending, after he had finished his devo- 
tions there, to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Disguised in 
this habit, hh remained at the abbey. He communicated to 
his director a plan of the austerities he proposed to practise^ 
and was confirmed by him in his good resolutions. He re- 
ceived the blessed eucharist early in the morning on tl^ feast 
of the Annunciation of our Lady in 1522 ; and, on the same 
day, left Montserrat for fear of being discovered, having given 
his horse to the monastery, and hung up his sword on a piUar 



July 31.] 8t, iokatius, c. • 373 

near the altar, in testimonj of his reoouncing the secular wor- 
fare, and entering himself in that of Christ He travelled 
with his staff in his hand, a scrip by his side, bare-headed, 
and with one foot bare, the other being covered, because it was 
jet tender and swelled. He went awaj infinitely pleased that 
he had cast off the livery of the world, and put on that of Je- 
sus Christ. He had bestowed his rich clothes on a beggar at 
his coming out of Montserrat ; but the poor man was thrown 
into prison on suspicion of theft. Ignatius being sent afler by 
the magistrates and brought back, told the truth to release him, 
but would not discover his own name. 

Three leagues from Montserrat is a large village called Man- 
resa, with a convent of Dominicans, and an hospital without 
the walls for pilgrims and sick persons. Ignatius went to this 
hospital, and rejoicing to see himself received in it unknown 
and among the poor, began to fast on water and the bread which 
he begged, the whole week, except Sundays, when he ate a 
few boiled herbs, but sprinkled over with ashes. He wore an 
iron girdle and a hair shirt ; disciplined himself thrice a day, 
slept little, and lay on the ground. He was every day present 
^at the whole divine office, spent seven hours on his knees at 
prayer, and received the sacraments every Sunday. To add 
humiliation to his bodily austerities, he affected a clownishness 
in his behaviour, and went begging about the streets with his 
face covered with dirt, his hair rough, and his beard and nails 
grown out to a frightful length. The children threw stones at 
him, and followed him with scornful shouts in the streets. Ig- 
natius suffered these insults without saying one word, rejoicing 
secretly in his heart to share in the reproaches of the cross. 
The more mortifying the noisomeness of the hospital and the 
company of beggars were, the more violence he offered to him- 
self that he might bear them cheerfuUy. The story of the fino 
suit of clothes given to the beggar at Montserrat, and the pa- 
tience and devotion of the holy man, made him soon to be re- 
verenced as some fervent penitent in disguise. To shun this 
danger, he privately hid himself in a dark deep cave in a soli- 
tary valley, called The Vale of Paradise, covered with brier«^ 
half a mile from the town. Here he much increased his morti- 
fications, till he was accidentally found half dead, and carried 
back to Manrosa and lodged in the hospitaL 



374 , ST. IGNATIUS, O [JuLT 3L 

After enjoying peace of mind and heavenly consolations from 
tlie time of his conversion, he was here visited with the most 
terrible trial of fears and scruples. He foimd no comfort in 
prayer, no relief in fasting, no remedy in disciplines, no con- 
solation from the sacraments, and his soul was overwhelmed 
with bitter sadness. The Dominicans, out of compassion, took 
him out of the hospital into their convent $ but his mi^lancholj 
only increased upon him. He apprehended some sin hi every 
step he took, and seemed often on the very brink of despair ; 
but he was in the hands of Him whose trials are favours. He 
most earnestly implored the divine assistance, and took no sua* 
tenance for seven days, till his confessor obliged him to eat. 
Soon after this, his tranquillity of mind was perfectly restored* 
and his soul overflowed with spiritual joy. Erom. this ex* 
perience he acquired a particular talent for curing scrupulous 
consciences, and a singular light to discern thenn His prayer 
was accompanied with many heavenly raptures, and he received 
from God a supernatural knowledge and sense of sublime di* 
vine mysteries : yet he concealed all from the eyes of men^ 
only disclosing himself to his two confessors, the pious monk 
of Montserrat, and the Dominican of Manresa i however, the 
people began to reverence him as a living saint, which they par- 
ticularly testified during a violent fever into which his austeri* 
ties cast him three times. 

Too nice a worldly prudence may condemn the voluntary hu- 
miliations which this saint sometimes made choice of ; but the 
wisdom of God is above that of the worlds and the Holy 
Ghost sometimes inspires certain heroic souls to seek perfectly 
to die to themselves by certain practices which are extraordi- 
oary, and which would not be advisable to others ; and if af- 
fected or undertaken with obstinacy and against advice, would 
be pernicious and criminaL Ignatius, by perfect compunction, 
humility, self-denial, contempt of the world, severe interior 
trials, and assiduous meditation, was prepared, by the divine 
grace, to be raised to an extraordinary gift of supernatural 
prayer. He afterwards assured F. Lainez that he had learned 
more of divine mysteries by prayer in cme hour at Manresa, 
than all the doctors of the schools could ever have taught him. 
He was there favoured with many raptures, and divine illus- 
trations concerning the Trinity^^ uf which he afterwards spoke 



Jolt 31.] sx. ignatius, c* 375 

with 80 much light and imctioiiy that the most learned admired 
him, and the ignonint were instmcted. In like manner, in Ta- 
rious wonderful ecstacies, he waa enlightened concerning the 
beauty and order of the creation, the excess of divine love 
which shines forth to man in the sacrament of the altar, and 
many other mysteries. So io^rfect was his knowledge of hi* 
duties when he jQirst renounced the world, that hearing a cei^- 
tain Moresco or Mahometan speak injuriously of the holy mo« 
4ber of God^ when he set out from Loyola for Montserrat» he 
deliherated whether, being an officer, he ought not U> kill him, 
though the divine protectioo preserved him from so criminal an 
action. But at Manresa he made so good a progress in the 
school of virtue as to become qualified ahready to be a guide to 
others. Be staid there almost a year, during which time he 
governed himself by the advice of the holy monk of Montser- 
rat^ whom he visited every week, and that of his Dominican 
director. 

Spain, in that and the forogomg age, abounded with many 
learned and experienced persons In that way, endowed with an 
eminent spirit, and a perfect experimental knowledge of Chris- 
tian piety ; witness the woiks of St. Peter of Alcantara, John 
of Avila, St. Teresa, Bartholomew de Martyribus, Lewis of 
Granada, and others* Our saint had the happiness to fall into 
the hands of prudent and able guides, and giving his heart to 
God without reserve, became himself ia a short time an accom- 
plished master ; and whereas he at hint only proposed to him- 
self his own perfection, he afterwards burned with an ardent 
desire of contributing to the salviition of others; and com- 
miserating the blindness of sinners, and considering how much 
the glory of God shines in the sanctification of souls purchased 
with the blood of his Son, he said to himself: *'It is not 
enough that I serve the Lord ; all hearts ought to love hin^ 
and all tongues ought to praise him." With this view, in or- 
der to be admitted more freely to converse with persons in the 
world, he chose a dress which, being more decent than the pe- 
nitential garments which he at first wore, might not be dis- 
agreeable to others ; and he moderated his excessive austerities. 

He began then to exhort many to the love of virtue, and he 
there wrote his Spiritual Exercises* which he afterwai'db revised, 



S76 *' 8T. IGNATIUS, C, ' [JULY 31 

and published at Home in 1548.* Though the saint was at 
that time unacquainted with learning any further than barely 
to read and write, yet this book is so full of excellent maxima 
and instructions in the highest points of a spiritual life, that it 
is most clear that the Holy Ghost supplied abundantly what was 
yet wanting in him of human learning and study. The spirit 
which reigns in this book was that of all the saints. Frequent 
religious retirement had been practised by pious persons, in 
imitation of Christ and all the saints from the beginning ; likpt- 
wise the use and metliod of holy meditation were always known ; 
but the excellent order of these meditations, prescribed by 
Ignatius, was new : and, though the principal rules and maxims 
are found in the lessons and liyes of the ancient fathers of tho 
desert, they are here judiciously chosen, methodically digested, 
and clearly explained. One of these is, that a person must not 
abridge the time, or desist from meditating, on account of spiri- 
tual dryness ; another, that no one make any vow in sudden sen- 
timents of fervour, but wait some time, and first ask adyice. St. 
Ignatius establishes in this book the practice of a daily particular 

* Constantine Cajetan, a Benedictin of the Congregation of Mount 
Cassino, pretends this hook to hare heen first written hy Garcias Cisne- 
ros or Swan, a Benedictin ahhot of Montserrat. But the work of that 
pious and learned ahhot is a very diffei^nt piece, as is evident to every 
one that will compare the two hooks, and as Pinius demonstrates. That 
of Cisneros i^ indeed full of unction and spiritual knowledge ; hut com- 
piled in a scholastic method, and runs into superfluous suhdivisions. 
The meditations of St. Ignatius are altogether new, and written upon a 
different plan. He appoints, for the foundation of these exercises, a 
moving meditation on the end for which we are created, that we fidly 
convince ourselves that nothing is otherwise to he valued, sought, or en. 
joyed, than as it conduces to the honour and service of God. The m^li. 
tations on the fall of the angels and of man, on the future punishments 
of sin, and on the last things, show us the general effects of sin. To 
point out the particular disorders of our passions, and to purge our 
hearts of them, he represents to us the two standards of Christ and the 
devil, and all men ranging themselves under the one or the other, that 
*ye may he moved ardently to make our choice with the generous souls 
that foUow Christ. Then he proposes what this resolution requires, and 
how we are to express in ourselves the perfect image of our Saviour, hy 
the three degrees of humility, hy meditatin^^ on the mysteries of Christ'a 
life, and hy choosing a state of life, and regulating our employments ia 
it. By meditating ou Christ's sufferings, he will have us learn the heroic 
virtues of meekness and charity, &c. ; he taught us hy them to fortify 
our souls against contradictions ; and hy those on his glorious mysteries, 
and on the happiness of divine love, he teaches us to unite our hearts 
ckwdy to God. See Bartoli, 1. 1, &c. 



Jni^Y 31.] ST. IGNATIUS, c, ^ 377 

examination against a person's predominant passion, or on the 
best means and endeavours to acquire some particular virtue, 
besides the daily general examination of conscience. He lays 
down this excellent iriaxim;(r) "When God hath pointed 
out a way, we must faithfully follow it^ and never^ think of 
another, under pretence that it is more easy and safe. It is one 
of the devil's artifices to set before a soul some state; holy indeed, 
but impossible to her, or at least different from hcFS ; that by 
this love of novelty, she may dislike or be slack in her present 
state, in which God hath plax^ed her, and which is best for her. 
In like manner he repcesents to her other actions as more holy 
and profitable to make her conceive a disgust of her present 
employment." When some pretended to find fault with this 
book of St. Ignatius's Spiritual Exercises, Pope Paul III. at 
the request of St. Francis Borgia, by a brief in 1548, approved 
it, as full of the Spirit of God, and very useful for the edifica« 
tion and spiritual profit of the faithful. 

The pestilence which raged in Italy having ceased, Ignatius, 
after a stay of ten months at Manresa, left that place for Bar- 
celona, neither regarding the tears of those who sought to detain 
him, nor admitting any to bear him company, nor consenting to 
accept any money for the expenses of his journey. He took 
shipping at Barcelona, and in five days landed at Gaeta, whence 
he travelled on foot to Rome, Padua, and Venice, through vil- 
lages, the towns being shut for fear of the plague. Jle spent 
the Easter at Rome, and sailed from Venice on boa/li the ad- 
miral's vessel, which was carrying the governor to Cyprus. 
The sailors were a profligate crew, and seemed entirely to 
neglect prayer and all duties of religion, and their discourse 
was often lewd and profane. Ignatius having reproved them 
for their licentiousness, his zeal made them conspire to leave 
him ashore in a desert island ; but a gust of wind from the land 
liindered the ship from toucfhing upon it. He arrived at Cyprus, 
and found in the port a vessel full of pilgrims, just ready to 
hoist sail. Going immediately on board, he made a good voyage, 
and landed at Jafia, the ancient Joppe, on the last day of August, 
1523, forty days after he had left Venice. He went on foot 
from thence to Jerusalem in four days. The sight of the holy 
(1) Ezeic Splr. Max. 2, 3 



378 ST. IGNATITTS, C. [JulY 31*' 

placed filled his soul with joy and the most ardent sentiments of. 
devotion and compunction, and he desired to stay there to labour • 
in the conipersion of the Mahometans. Tire provincial of the 
Franciscans, by virtue of his authority firom the holy see over the 
pilgrims, commanded him to leave Palestine. Ignatius obeyed, 
but slipt privately back to satisfy his devotion again in visiting 
twice more the print of our Saviour's feet on mount Olivet. 

He returned to 'Europe in winter in extreme cold weather, 
poorly clad, and came to Venice at the end of January in 1524 ; 
from whence he continued his journey by Genoa to Barcelona. 
Desiring to qualify himself for the functions of the altar, and 
for assisting spiritually his neighbour, he began at Barcelona 
to study grammar, and addressed himself to a famous master 
named Jerom Ardebal, being assisted in the mean time in 
his maintenance by the charities of a pious lady of that city, 
called Isabel Rosella. He was then thirty-three years old; 
and it is not hard to conceive what difficulties he must go 
through in learning the rudiments of grammar at that age. 
Moreover, he seemed, by his military employments, and after 
his retreat by his contemplative life, very unfit for such an 
undertaking. At first, his mind was so fixed only on God, 
that he forgot every thing he read, and conjugating amoy for 
example, could only repeat to himself, " I love God ; I am loved 
by God," and the like ; but resisting this as a temptation, he 
began to make some progress, still joining contemplation and 
extraordinary austerities with hiB studies. He bore the jeers 
and taunts of the little boys, his schoolfellows, with joy. Hearing 
that a poor man called Lasano had hanged himself on- a beam 
In his chamber, he ran to him, cut the rope, and prayed' by him 
till the man returned to himself, though' he had before seemed 
perfectly dead to all the bystanders. Lasano made his confes- 
sion, received the sacraments, and soon after expired. This 
fact was regarded in the city as miraculous. 

Some persons persuaded Ignatius to read Erasmuses Christian 
Soldier, an elegant book wrote by that master of style, at the 
request of an officer's pious lady, for the use of hei husband, a 
man of loose morals. The saint always found his heart dry 
after reading this or any other of that author's works ; which 
made him afterwards caution those of his society against reading 



JCLT 31.] 8T. IGNATIUS, C. 379 

them, at least yery much. Though in that writei^ft paniphraae 
on the Lord's prayer and other such treatises of piety, we find 
very pious sentiments collected from great authors, and elegantly 
and concisely expressed, yet a devout reader finds the language 
of the heart wanting. On the other side, it is well known how 
much St. Ignatius read daily, and recommended to all others 
the incomparable book. Of the Imitation of Christ, which he 
made frequent use to nourish and increase the fervour of hi^ 
soul. He lodged at ^e house of one Agnes Pascal, a devout 
woman. Her son John Pascal, a pious youJ;h, would sometimes 
nse in the night to observe what Ignatius did in his chamber, 
and saw him sometimes on his knees, sometimes prostrate on the 
ground, his countenance on fire, and often in tears, repeating 
such words as these : " O God, my love, and the delight of my 
soul, if men knew thee they could never ofiend thee I My God, 
how good art thou to bear with such a sinner as I am !** 

The saint, after studying two years at Barcelona, went to the 
university of Alcala, which had been lately founded by Cardinal 
Ximenes, where he attended at the same time at lectures in 
logic, physics, and divinity ; by which multiplicity he only con- 
founded his ideas, and learned nothing at all, though he studied 
night and day. He lodged in a chamber of an hospital, lived 
by begging a small subsistence, and wore a coarse grey habit^ 
in which he was imitated by four companions. He catechised 
children, held assemblies of devotion in the hospital, and by hi9 
mild reprehensions converted many loose livers, and among 
others one of ^he richest prelates in Spain. Some accused him 
of sorcery, and of the heresy of certain visionaries lately con- 
demned in Spain under the name of the Bluminati, or Men of 
New Light : but, upon examination, he was justified by the in- 
quisitors. After this, for teaching the catechism, being a man 
without learning or authority, he was accused to the bishop^s 
grand vicar, who confined him to close prison two-and-forty 
days, but declared him innocent of any fault by a public sentence 
on the 1st day of June, 1527 ; yet forbidding him and his>com- 
panions to wear any singular habit, or to give any instructions 
in religious matters, being illiterate persons. Ignatius rejoiced 
in his jail that he sufiered though innocent, but spoke with such 
piety that many called him another St. Paul in prison. Beio;; 



380 8T. IGNATIUS, O. [JuLY 3U 

enlarged, he went about the streets with a public officer to be^ 
money to buy a scholar's dress, in which action he rejoiced at 
the insults and affronts which he met with. However, he went 
himself to the archbishop of Toledo, Alphonsus de Fdhseca, who 
was much pleased with him, but advised him to leave Alcala^ 
and go to Salamanca, promising him his protection. Ignatius, 
in this latter place, began to draw many to virtue, and was fol- 
lowed by great numbers, which exposed him again to suspicions 
of introducing dangerous practices, and the grand-vicar of 
Salamanca imprisoned him; but after two-and-twenty days 
declared him innocent, and a person of sincere virtue. Ignatius 
looked upon prisons, sufferings, and ignominy as tl^e height of 
his ambition ; and Grod was pleased to purge and sanctify his 
soul by these trials. Recovering his liberty again, he resolved 
to leave Spain. 

He from that time began to wear shoes, and received money 
sent him by his friends, but in the middle of winter travelled 
on foot to Paris, where he arrived in the beginning of February, 
1528. He spent two years in perfecting himself in the Latin 
tongue ; , then went through a course of philosophy. He lived 
first in Montaigue college ;. but being robbed of his money waff 
obliged to lodge in the hospital of St. James, to beg his bread 
from day to day, and in the vacation time to go into Flanders, 
and once into England, to procure charities from the Spanish 
merchants settled there, from whom and from some friends at 
Barcelona he received abundant supplies. He studied his phi- 
losophy three years and a half in the college of St. Barbara. 
He had induced many of his schoolfellows to spend the Sundays 
and holydays in prayer, and to apply themselves more fervently 
to the practice of good works. Pegna his master thought he 
hindered their studies, and finding him not corrected by his 
admonitions, prepossessed G-ovea, principal of the college of St. 
Barbara, against him, so that he was ordered by him to undergo 
the greatest punishment then in use in that university, called 
The Hall, which was a public whipping ; that this infamy might 
deter others from following him. The regents came all into the 
hall with rods in their hands, ready to lash the seditious student, 
Ignatius offered himself joyfully to suffer all things ; yet^ appre- 
hending lest the scandal of this disgrace should make those 



July 31.] st. Ignatius, c. 381 

whom he had reclaimed fall back, when they saw him con- 
demned as a corrupter of youth, went to the principal in hi» 
chamber, and modestly laid open to him the sentiments of his 
soul, and the reasons of his conduct ; and offered himself as 
much as concerned his own person, that any sacrifice should be 
made of his body and fame, but begged of him to consider the 
scandal some might receive, who were yet young and tender in 
virtue. Govea made him no answer, but taking him by the 
hand led him into the hall, where, at the ringing of the bell, the 
whole college stood ready assembled. When all saw the prin- 
cipal enter, and expected the sign for the punishment, he threw 
himself at the feet of Ignatius, begging his pardon for having 
too lightly believed such false reports ; then rising, he publicly 
declared that Ignatius was a living saint, and had no other aim 
or desire than the salvation of souls, and was ready to suffer 
joyfully any infamous punishment. Such a reparation of honour 
gave the saint the highest reputation, aad even the ancient and 
experienced doctors asked his advice in spiritual matters. Pegna 
himself was ever after his great admirer and friend, and ap- 
pointed another scholar, who was more advanced in his studies, 
and a young man of great virtue and quick parts, to assist him 
in his exercises. This was Peter Faber, a Savoyard, a native 
of the diocess of Geneva, by whose help he finished his philo- 
Siiphy, and took the degree of master of arts with great applause, 
after a course of three years and a half, according to the custom 
of th^ times. After this, Ignatius began his divinity at the 
Dominicans. 

Peter Faber had from his childhood made a vow of chastity, 
which he had always most faithfully kept, yet was troubled with 
violent temptations, from which the most rigorous fasts did not 
deliver him. He was also tempted to vain-gloiy, and laboured 
under great anxiety and scruples about these temptations, which 
he at length disclosed to Ignatius his holy pupil, whose skilful 
and heavenly advice was a healing balsam to his soul. The 
saint at last prescribed him a course of his spiritual exercises, 
and taught him the practices of meditation, of the partioulai 
examination, and other means of perfection, conducting him 
through all the paths of an interior life. St. Francis Xavier, a 
young master of philosophy, full of the vanity of the schoola, 
VOL. vn. 2 B 



382 8T, IGNATIUS, C» [Jvi.Y 31. 

was hia next conquest. St. Ignatius made him sensible that ail 
mortal gloiy is emptiness ; only that which is eternal deserving 
our regard. He converted many abandoned sinners. When a 
yoang man, engaged in a criminal commerce with a woman of 
the city, was proof against his exhortations, Ignatius stood in a 
frozen pond by the way side up to the neck, and as he passed 
by in the night, cried out to him, " Whither are you going ? 
Do not you hear the thunder of divine justice over your head, 
ready to break upon you ? Go then ; satisfy your brutish pas- 
sion ; here I will suffer for you, to appease heaven." The lewd 
young man, at first afi&ighted, then confounded, returned back, 
and changed his life. By the like pious stratagems the saint 
recovered many other souls from the abysses into which they 
were fallen. He often served the sick in the hospitals ; and 
one day finding a repugnance to touch the ulcers of one sick of 
a contagious distemper, to overcome himself he not only dressed 
Ills sores, but put his hand from them to his mouth, saying, 
'* Since thou art afraid for one part, thy whole body shall take 
its share.'' From that time he felt no natural repugnance in 
such actions. 

James Laynez, of Almazan, twenty-one years of age ; Al- 
phonsus Salmeron, only eighteen ; and Nicholas Alphonso, sur- 
named Bobadilla, from the place of his birth, near Valencia, all 
Spaniards of great parts, at that time students in divinity at 
Paris, associated themselves to the saint in his pious exercises 
Simon Rodriguez, a Portuguese, joined them. These fervent 
students, moved by the pressing instances and exhortations cC 
Ignatius, made altogether a vow to renounce the world, to goto 
preach the gospel in Palestine, or if they could not go thither 
within a year after they had finished their studies, to offer them- 
selves to his holiness to be employed in the service of Grod in 
what manner he should judge best. They fixed for the end of 
all their studies the 25th day of January in 1537> and pro- 
nounced this vow aloud, in the holy subterraneous ehapel at 
Montmartre, after they had aU received the holy communion 
from Peter Faber, who had been lately ordained priest. This 
was done on the feast of the Assumption of our Lady, in 1534. 
Ignatius continued frequent conferences, and joint exercises, to 
animate his companions in their good purposes ; but soon after 



J0LY 31.] ST. IGNATIUS, C 383 

was ordered bj the physicians to try his native air, for the cure 
of a lingering indisposition. He left Paris in the beginning of 
the year 1535, and was most honourably and joyfully received 
in Gnipuscoa by his eldest brother Grarcias, and his nephews, 
»nd by all the clergy in processions. He refused to go to the 
castle of Loyola, taking up his quarters in the hospital of 
Azpetia. The sight of the places where he had led a worldly 
life excited in him the deepest sentiments of compunction, and 
he chastised his body with a rough hair shirt, iron chains, disci- 
plines, watching, and prayer. He recovered his health in a 
«hort time, and catechised and instructed the poor with incredi- 
ble fruit. Ignatius, in his childhood, had with some companions 
robbed an orchard, for which another man had been condemned 
to pay the damages. In the first discourse he made he ac- 
cused himself publicly of this fact, and calling the poor man, 
who was present, declared that he had been falsely accused, and 
for reparation gave him two farms which belonged to him, beg- 
ging his pardon before all the people, adding tibiat this was one 
of the reasons of his journey thither. 

In the mean time, three others, all doctors in divinity, by the 
exhortations of Faber, joined the saint's companions in Paris. 
Claudius le Jay, a Savoyard, John Codure, a native of Dau- 
phin6, and Pasquier Brouet, of Picardy ; so that with Ignatius 
they were now ten in number. The holy founder, tfter a 
tedious and dangerous journey both by sea and land arrived at 
Venice about the end of the year 1536, and his nine companions 
from Paris met him there on the 8th of January, 1537, they 
employed themselves in the hospitals, but all except Ignatius 
went to Rome, where Pope Paul III. received them graciously 
and granted them an indult, tfiat those who were not priests 
might receive holy orders from what bishop they pleased. They 
were accordingly ordained at Venice by the bishop of Arbe. 
Ignatius was one of this number. After their ordination they 
retired into a cottage near Vicenza, to prepare themselves in 
solitude by fasting and prayer for the holy ministry of the altar. 
The rest said their first masses in September and October, but 
Ignatius deferred his from month to month till Christinas day, 
overflowing in his retirement with heavenly consolations, and . 
in danger of losing his sight througli the abundance of his tears 



3ft4 ST. lOTfATIDS, C [JULY Sh 

Thus he employed a whole year in preparing Mmself to offer 
that adorable sacrifice. After tliis they dispersed themsdvoi^i 
into several pkces about Verona and Yicenza, preaching pe- 
nance to the people, and living on a little bread which they 
^ge^^* '^^^ emperor and the Venetians having declared war 
against the Turks, their pilgrimage into Palestine was rendered 
impracticable. The year therefore being elapsed, Ignatius, 
Faber, and Laynez went to Borne, threw themselves at his holi* 
ness's feet and offered themselves to whatever work he should 
judge best to employ them in. St. Ignatius told his ccmipanions 
at Vicenza, that if any one asked what their institute was, they 
might answer: "the Society of Jesus;" because they were 
united to fight against heresies and vice under the standard of 
Christ. In his road from Vicenza to Rome, praying in a little 
chapel between Sienna and Rome, he, in an ecstacy, seemed to 
see the Eternal Father, who afiectionately commended him to his 
Son. Jesus Christ appeared at the same time also shining with 
an unspeakable light, but loaded with a heavy cross, and sweetly 
said to Ignatius: "I will be favourable to you at Rome."* 
This St. Ignatius disclosed to F. Laynez, in a transport when 
he came out of the chapel ; and F. Laynez, when he was ge- 
neral, related it to all the fathers in Rome in a domestic confe- 
rencCj at which F. Ribaden'eira^ who records it, was presents 
The same was attested by others to whom the saint had disco- 
vered this signal favour. Pope Paul III. accordingly received 
them graciously 5 and appointed Faber, called in French 
Le Fevre, to teach in the Sapienza at Rome scholastic divinity, 
and Laynez to explain the holy scripture ; whilst Ignatius la- 
boured, by means of his spiritual exercises and instructions, to 
reform the manners of the people. 

The holy founder, with a view to perpetuate the work of God^ 
called to Rome all his companions, and proposed to them his 
design and motives of forming themselves into a religious Order. 
After recommending the matter to G-od by fasting and prayer, 
all agreed in the proposal, and resolved, first, besides the vows of 
poverty and chastity already made by them, to add a third of 
perpetual obedience, the more perfectly to conform themselves 

>' ' " ■ I I ■ ■ f . r ■ p I . ■ 

^ |)go Tobis Romie pro^itlus ero. See F. Boubours, b. 3» 



. JuLir 31.] ST. iGNAliua, c 386 

to the Son of Grod who was obedient oTcn to death ; and to es« 
tablish a general whom all, bj their vow, should be bound to« 
obej, who shoidd be perpetual, and his authority absolute, sub- 
ject entirely to the pope, but not liable to lie restrained by chap- 
ters. He likewise determined to prescribe a fourth vow of 
going wherever the pope should send them for the salvation of 
souls, and even without mon&y, if it should so please him : also 
that the professed Jesuits should possess no real estates or reve- 
nues, either in particular, or in common; but that colleges 
might enjoy revenues and rents for the maintenance of students 
of the Order. In the meanwhile Govea, principal of the col. 
lege of St. Barbara at Paris had recommended the Jesuits to 
the king of Portugal as proper missionaries for the conversion 
of the Indies, and that prince asked of Ignatius six labourers 
for that purpose. The founder having only ten, could send him 
no more than two, Simon Rodriguez, who remained in Portu- 
gal, and Xavier, afterwards the apostle of the Indies. The 
three cardinals appointed by the pope to examine the affair of 
this new Order, at first opposed it, thinking religious Orders 
already too much multiplied, but changed their opinions on a 
sudden, and Pope Paul III. approved it under the title of *' The 
Society of Jesus,'* by a bull dated the 27th of September, 1540. 
Ignatius was chosen the [first general, but only acquiesced in 
obedience to his confessor. He entered upon his office on Easter 
day, 1541, and the members all made their religious vows, ac- 
cording to the bull of their institution. 

Ignatius then set himself to write constitutions or rules for 
his society, in which he lays down its end to be, in the first 
place, the sanctification of their own souls by joining together 
the active and the contemplatiye life; for nothing so much 
qualifies a minister of God to save others as the sanctification 
of his own soul in the first place ; secondly, to labour for ^ 
salvation and perfection of their neighbour, and this, first, by 
catechising the ignorant ; (which work is the basis and ground 
of religion and virtue, and though mean and humble, is the 
most necessary and indispensable duty of every pastor,) se- 
condly, by the instruction of youth* in piety and learning ; upon 

• * 'i bone 19 a&other lehgious Order, vory famous in Italy, establiihed 



386 8T. IGNATIUS, a ''^JlTLT 31 

which the reformation 'of the world principallj depends;) and 

thirdly, by the direction of consciences, missions, and the like,* 

St Ignatius would have the office of general to be perpetual 

|br the education of youth, called the Regular Clergy of the Schola Pia. 
The founder was F. Joseph Oazalana, a nobleman of Arragon. He took 
priestly orders in 1582, and, going to Rome, devoted himself with great 
ferrour to the heroic practice of all good works, especially to the cate. 
dilfling and teaching of children. To propagate this design, he instituted 
a congregation of priests, approved by Paul V. in 1617, and declared a 
religious Order, ynt\\ ample privileges, by Gregory XV. in 1621. These 
religious men hind themselves by a fourth vow, to labour in instructmjr 
children, e(^)ecially the poor. The holy founder died in 1648, on the 
S5th of August. 

* He appointed no other habit than that used hy the clergy in his time 
the more decwitiy and courteously to converse with all ranks of people! 
and because he instituted an Order only of regular clerks. He would 
not have his refigious to keep choir, because he destined their tune to 
«rangelical functions. He ordered all, before they ai^ admitted, to em* 
ploy a month for a general confession and a spiritual exercise. After 
this, two years in a novitiate ; then to take the simple vows of scholars, 
binding themsdves to poverty, chastity, and obedience, which vows make 
them strictiy religious men ; for by them a person in this Order irrevo- 
oably consecrates himself to God on his side, though the Order does not 
hind itself absdutely to him, and the general has power to dismiss him ; 
by which discharge he is freed from all obligation to the Society, his first 
vows being made under this condition. These simple vows are only made 
in the presence of domestics. The professed Jesuits make these same 
TOWS again (commonly after all their studies) but puWidy, and without 
the former condition ; so that these second are solemn vows absolutelY 
binding on both sides ; wherefore, a professed Jesuit can be no more dis- 
missed by his Order, so as to be discharged firom his obJigations by which 
he is tied to it. In these last is added a fourth vow oi undertaJrinir any 
missions, whether among the faithful or infidels, if enjoined them Iw the 
pope. There is a class of Jesuits who take the other vows, without this 
last relating to the missions ; and these axe called spiritual coadjutors 
So this Order consists of four sorts of persons ; scholars or Jesuits of the 
first vows ; professed Jesuits or of the last or four vows ; spiritual coad 
jutow, and temporal coadjutors. 

No particular bodily mortifications are prescribed by the rule of the 
Society ; but two most perfect practices of interior mortification are riiro. 
rously enjoined, on account of which Suarez, (t. 3, deRelig ) who tr^tn 
at length of the obUgations of their Order, calls it the most rigorous of 
religious Orders; the first is, the rule of Manifestation, by which every 
one is bound to discover his interior inclinations to his superior ; the second 
is, that every Jesuit renounces his right to l^s own reputation with his «u- 
perior, giving leave to every brother to inform immediately his superior of 
all his faults he knows, without observmg the law of private correction 
first, which is a precept of fraternal charity, unless where a penon has 
given up his right. 

The general nominates the provincial and rectors; but he has five 
assistants nominated by the general congregation, iHio prepare all mat- 
ten to bif hands, each far the province of his assistency | and thmo haTe 



1 



JCLT 3L] 8T. IGNATIUS, C. 387 

or for life, being persuaded this would better command the 
respect of inferiors, and more easil7 enable him to undertake 
and carry on great enterprises for the glory of God, which re- 
quire a considerable time to have them well executed. Neverthe- 
less, he often strenuously endeavouied to resign that dignity, 
but was never able to compass it ; and at length the pope for- 
bade him any more to attempt it. He had no sooner taken that 
charge upon him than he went into the kitchen, and served as 
a scullion under the cook, and he continued for forty-six days 
to catechise poor children in the church of the Society. By 
preaching he gained such an ascendant over the hearts of the 
people as produced many wonderful conversions. Among the 
pious establishments which he made at Rome, he founded a 
house for the reception of Jews who should be converted, dur- 
ing the time of their instruction, and another for the reception 
&nd maintenance of lewd women who should be desirous to 
enter upon virtuous courses, yet were not called to a religious 
state among the Magdalens or penitents. When one told him 
that the conversion of such sinners is seldom sincere, he an- 
swered : " To prevent only one sin would be a great happiness, 
though it cost me ever so great pains.'' He procured two houses 

aathority to call a general congregation to depose the general if he should 
eridently transgress the rules of the Society. Every prorindal it 
obliged to write to the general once every month* and once in three 
years transmit to him an account of all the Jesuits in his province. The 
perfect form of government which is established, the wi^om, the unc- 
tion, the zeal, and the consummate knowledge of men, which appear 
throughout all these constitutions, wiU be a perpetual maniibst mona* 
ment of the saint's admirable penetration, judgment, and pie^. He 
wrote his constitutions in Spanish, but they were transited into Latin 
by his secretary. Father John Polfincus. It is pecidiar to the Society 
that the religious, after their first vows, retain some time the dominioi . 
or property of their patrimony, without the administration (for this lattei 
condition is now essential to a religious vow of poverty) till they make 
their renunciation. 

St. Ignatius forbade the fathers of his society to undertake the direc- 
tion of nunneries on the following occasion. In 1545, Isabel Bozella, a 
noble Spanish widow, and two others, with the approbation of Pope 
Paul m. put themselves under St. Ignatius's direction, to live according 
to his rule ; but he soon repented and procured from his Holiness, in 1547, 
the aforesaid prohibition, saying, that such a task took up all that time 
which he desired to dedicate to a more general good in serving many. 
When certain women in Flanders and Piedmont afterwards assembled 
in houses under vows and this rule, and called themselves Jeeaitessei^ 
their institute was abolished by Urban VIII. in 1631, the end and exer. 
tisei of this Society not suiting that sex. 



388 8T. IGNATIUS, C. [JuLT 31 

' to be erected at Rome for the rielief of poor orphans of both 
sexes, and another for the maintenance of young women whose 
poverty might expose their virtue to danger. The heart of this 
blessed man so burned with charity, that he was continually 
thinking and speaking of what might most contribute to pro- 
mote the divine honour and the sanetification of souls ; and he 
4id wonders by the zealous fathers of his Society in all parts of 
the globe. He was entreated by many princes and cities of 
Italy, Spain, Germany, and the Low- Countries to afford them 
some of his labourers. Under the auspicious protection of John 
IIL king of Portugal, he sent St. Francis Xavier into the East 
Indies, where he gained a new world to the faith of Christ. 
He sent John Nugnez and Lewis Gonzales into the kingdoms 
of Fez and Morocco to instruct and assist the Christian slaves ; 
in 1547, four others to Congo in Africa ; in 1555, thirteen into 
Abyssinia, among whom John Nugnez was nominated by Pope 
Julius III. patriarch 5f Ethiopia, and two others, bishops ; 
lastly, others into the Portuguese settlements in South America. 
Pope Paul III. commissioned the fathers James Laynez and 
Alphonsus Salmeron to assist, in quality of his theologians, at 
the Council of Trent. Before their departure St Ignatius, 
among other instructions, gave them a charge in all disputaticms 
to be careful above all things to preserve modesty and humility, 
and to shun all confidence, contentiousness, or empty display of 
learning. F. Claudius Le Jay appeared in the same council as 
theologian of Cardinal Otho, bishop of Ausberg. Many of the 
first disciples of St. Ignatius distinguished themselves in divers 
kingdoms of Eun^, but none with greater reputation, both for 
learning and piety, than Peter Canisius, who was a native of 
Nimeguen, in the Low Countries, and having with wonderful 
success employed his zealous labours at Ingolstadt and in several 
other parts of Germany, and in Bohemia, died in the odour of 
sanctity, at Fribourg, in 1597, seventy-seveh years old.(l) Whilst 
F. Claudius Le Jay was at Trent, Ferdinand, king of tic Ro- 
mans, nominated him bishop of Trieste. The good father seemed 
ready to die of grief at this news, and wrote to St. Ignatius, 
humbly requesting him to put some bar to this promotion. The 
holy founder was himself alarmed, and by a pressing letter to 

Cl^ See his edifying life by Raderus and Sacchini. 



July 31.] sT. ionatids, c. 389 

the king, prevailed upon him not to do what would be an irre- ' 
parable prejudice to his young Society. He urged to the pope 
and sacred college many reasons why he desired that all the fa- 
thers of his Society should be excluded from all ecclesiastical 
dignities, alleging that this would be a means more easily to 
. preserve among them a spirit of humility and poverty, which is 
the very soul and perfection of their state ; and that, being mis« 
Bionaries, it was more advantageous to the church that they 
should remain such, always ready to fly from pole to pole, as 
the public necessities should require. The pope being satisfied 
with his reasons, the saint obliged all professed Jesuits to bind 
themselves by a simple vow never to seek prelatures, and to re- 
fuse them when offered, unless compelled by a precept of the 
pope to accept them. 

In 1546 the Jesuits first opened their schools in Europe, in 
the college which St. Francis Borgia had erected fot them at 
Gandia, with the privileges of a imiversity.(l) The seminary 
of Goa in Asia, which had been erected some years before for 
the Indian missions, was committed to the Jesuits, under the 
direction of St. Francis Xavier, the preceding year. King 
John also founded for them, in 1546, a noble college at Coimbra, 
the second which they had in Europe. F. Simon Rodriguez 
directed this establishment, and many others in Portugal, Spain, 
and BrasO, and died at Lisbon in the highest reputation for 
sanctity and learning in 1579* Among the rules which St. 
Ignatius gave to the masters, he principally inculcated the les- 
sons of humility, modesty, and devotion ; he prescribed that all 
their scholars should hear mass every day, go to confession every 
month, and always begin their studied by prayer; that their 
masters should take every fit occasion to inspire them with the 
love of heavenly things ; and that by daily meditation, self-exa- 
minations, pious reading, retreat, and the constant exercise of 
the divine presence, they should nourish in their own souls a 
fervent spirit of prayer, which without the utmost care is ex- 
tinguished by a dry course of studies and school disputations ; 
and with it is destroyed the very soul of a religious or spiritual 
Ul'e. He recommended nothing more earnestly* both to profea- 

(1) BdokcuTs. 1. 4. Orlnndin. Hist. Soc. 1. J, c. 25. 



390 ST. IGNATIUS, C. [J0I.T-31 

Bors and scholars, than that thej should dedicate all their la« 
hours, with the greatest fervour, to the greater glory of God, 
which intention will make studies equal to prayer. He treatedi 
very harshly all those whom learning rendered self-conceited, or 
less devout ; and removed all those masters who discovered any 
fondness for singular opinions. It is incredihle with what at- 
tention and industry he promoted emulation and every meanB 
that could he a spur to scholars. He required that copies of 
some of the principal literary performances should he sent from 
all the colleges to Rome, where he had them examined before 
him, that he might better judge of the progress both of masters 
and scholars. 

He encouraged every branch of the sciences, and would have 
the fathers in his society applied to those functions, whether in 
teaching, preaching, or the missions, for which God seemed 
chiefly to qualify and destine them by their genius, talents, and 
particular graces; yet so that no one should neglect the 
duties either of assiduous prayer and an interior life, or of 
instructing and catechising others. He reconmiended to them all, 
especially to the masters of novices, &c., to read diligently the 
conferences, lives, and writings of the fathers of the desert^ and 
other pious ascetics, in order to learn their spirit. With whai 
success many among them did this, appears from the Practice 
of Christian Perfection, compiled by F. Alphonsus Rodriguez, 
one of the most eminent persons whom our saint had admitted 
into his society. In this excellent work he gathered and di- 
gested, in a clear and easy method, the most admirable maxims 
and lessons of the ancient monks; and having many years 
trained up, according to them, the novices of his Order in Spain, 
died holily in the year 1616, the ninetieth of his age.* We 
have other eminent instances of this holy spirit and science 
among the primitive disciples of St Ignatius, in the works of 
F. Lewis de Ponte or Puente, who died in 1624, and whose 
canonization has been often desired by the kings of Spain ; in 

* The yaliie of this treasure is enhanced bj the elegant dress by which 
it is set off in the French translation of the Abbe Begnier des Marais 
three Tolumes in 4to., four in 8yo., and six in 12mo. The devout Abbe 
Tricalet gave a good abridgment of this excellent work, printed ia 
1760. The translation of Bodriguez made by the gentlemen of Fort* 
Royal is faulty in sereral places, particularly Tr. 1, c. 10. 



JdLT 31.] ST. IGNATIUS, C 39* 

those of F. Alvarez de Paz, who died in Tera in 1620| and is 
the writings and life of F. Baltassar Alvarez, who died in Spaais 
in 1580, in the odour of sanctitj. 

St. Francis Borgia, in 1551, gave a considerable sum towards 
building the Roman college for the Jesuits. Pope Julius III. 
contributed largely to it ; Paul IV. in 1555, founded it for per- 
petuity with great munificence; afterwards Gregory XUL much 
augmented its buildings and revenues. St. Ignatius, intendii^ 
to make this the model of all his other colleges, neglected 
nothing to render it complete, and took care that it should be 
supplied with the ablest masters in all the sciences, and with all 
possible helps for the advancement of literature. He made it a 
strict rule in the society, that every one should study to speak 
^rrectly the language of the country where he lives ;(1) for, 
irithout being perfect in the vulgar tongue, no one can be qua* 
lified to preach or perform many other functions with profit. 
On this account he established in the Eoman college daily les- 
sons in the Italian tongue, and he carefully studied that lan- 
guage, and appointed others to put him in mind of all the 
faults which he should commit in speaking. St. Ignatius also 
directed the foundation of the German college in Rome made 
by Julius m. but afterwards finished by Gregory XIIL Ha 
often met with violent persecutions, but overcame them by 
meekness and patience. When the French king, Henry II., 
gave the society letters patent to settle in France, the parlia- 
ment of Paris made the most outrageous remonstrances, and the 
faculty of Sorbon, though not without opposition, pas-4ed a viru- 
lent decree against it. The other fathers at Rome thought it 
necessary to answer these censures ; but St. Ignatius would 
have nothing printed or written in their defence, saying, that it 
was better to commit their cause to God, and that the slandera 
raised against them would faU of themselves ; and so it hap- 
pened. Indeed the storm was too violent to last. Upon other 
occasions the saint modestly defended his institute against slan- 
derers. 

The prudence and charity of the saint in his conduct towarda 
his religious, won him all their hearts. His commands seemed 
rather entreaties. The address with which he accommodated 
(1) Orland. FJst. See. 1. 16. 



3958 6T. IGNATIUS, c. [July 3L 

himself to everj one's particular genius, and the mildness with 
which he tempered his reproofs, gave to his reprehensions n 
sweetness which gained the affections whilst it corrected a fault. 
Thus chiding one for his too little guard over his eyes, he said 
to him with tenderness : " I have often admired the modesty of 
your deportment, yet observe that unguarded glances often 
escape you.'* When another had fixed his eyes steadfastly upon 
him a long time, the saint enjoined him to make the govern- 
ment of his eye the subject of his particular examination, and 
to say every day a short prayer for fifteen months. He ex- 
tremely recommended a strict modesty in the whole exterior as ' 
the index of the interior, and a means absolutely necessary for 
the regulating of it, and the government of the senses and pas- 
sions. He always showed the affection of the most tender 
parent towards all his brethren, especially towards the sick, for 
whom he was solicitous to procure every spiritual and even 
temporal succour and comfort, which it was his great delight to 
give them himself. The most perfect obedience and self-denial 
were the two first lessons which he inculcated to his novices, 
whom he told at the door as they entered, that they must leave 
behind them aU self-will and private judgment In his famous 
letter to the Portuguese Jesuits, on The Virtue of Obedience, 
he says, this alone bringeth forth and nourisheth all other vir- 
tues-; and calls it the peculiar virtue, and distinguishing mark and 
characteristic of his society, in which, if any member suffer 
himself to be outdone by those of other Orders in fasting or 
watching, that he must yield to none in obedience. He adds, 
true obedience must reach the understanding as well as the will, 
and never suffer a person even secretly to complain of, or cen- 
sure the precept of a superior, whom he must always consider 
as vested with the authority of Jesus Christ over him. He 
says, it is not a less fault to break the laws of obedience ia 
watching than in sleeping, in labouring than in doing nothing. 
When F. Araos, whose spiritual labours were very successful 
in the court of Spain, seemed to seek the conversation of the 
great ones of the world, upon pretence of conciliating their . 
favour to his ministry, St. Ignatius sent him a sharp reprimand, 
telling him, that the necessary authority for tlie iiiinwtews of ♦he 
word of God, is to be gained only by a spirit oi lecollection^ 



JcLr 31. J 8T. IGNATIUS, c. 3^3 

and tb« exercises of Chiistian liuinilitj ; lor the loss of every- 
thing is to be feared in an intercourse with the great ones of 
the world. He used to saj, that prosperity caused in him 
more fear than joj, that when persecutiim ceased he should be 
in apprehension lest the society should soitiewhat relax in the 
observance of its regular discipline ; that good fortune is never 
to be trusted, and that we have most to fear when Ihings go 
according to our desires. He made a most di&vere regulation, 
that in ^e society no one should even visit women, even of the 
highest quality, alone; and that when they discoursed with 
them, or heard their confessions, this should be so ordered, that 
the companion might see all that passed, without hearing what 
ought to be secret, this being a means to prevent the possibility 
of evil suspicions or slanders. In the assigninsj the employ- 
ments of those under his charge, he had usually a r^ard to 
their inclinations, thou^ he always required that, on their 
parts, they should be wholly indifferent and disposed cheerfully 
to accept and discharge any. 

Notwithstanding the fatigue and constant application which 
the establishment of his Order in all parts of the world, and so 
many other great enterprises undertaken to promote the glory 
of God required, he wassail on fire with an excess of charity, 
and a restless desire of gaining souls to God, and wearied him- 
self out in the service of his neighbour, always labouring to 
extirpate vice, and to promote virtue in all, and set on foot se^ 
veral practices which might conduce to the divine service and 
the salvation of men. It is not to be believed how many and 
how great affairs this blessed* man was able to go through, and 
with what courage and spirit he bore so continual a burden, and 
this with so weak health and infirm body« But he was assisted 
by the powerful hand of our Lord, that furnished him with 
strength for all his labours ; so that he then appeared strongest 
and most courageous, when he was weary, sickly, and unpro- 
vided of human and natural helps ; for, in his infirmity, the 
power of God manifested itself, and the saint seemed to sup- 
port the weakness of his body with the vigour of his flouL This 
interior strength he chiefiy maintained by an etninent spirit of 
prayer, and the constant and closest union of his spuI with God; 
for he was favoured with an extraordinary grace of devotioi^ 



394 * ST. lONATms, c. [Jult 31. 

which he, out of humility, thought God had given him out of 
compassion for his weakness and misery, which he said was 
greater than that of any other. In saying the holy mass, and 
reciting the divine office, the ahundance of heavenly delights 
which God poured into his soul, was often so great, and made 
■nch showers of tears stream from his eyes, that he was obliged 
to stop in a manner at every word, sometimes to make a con- 
siderable interruption whilst he gave vent to his tears. It was 
once feared, lest his continual effusion of tears should hurt his 
eye-sight* At other times, though his eyes were dry at his 
deyotion, and the sluices of his tears were shut up, yet their in- 
fluence and effect was not wanting; for his spirit was still 
watered with hearenly dew, and the divine illustrations ceased 
Bot to flow copiously into his soul. 

In matters of concern, though reasons were ever so con- 
vincing and evident, he never took any resolution before he had 
consulted God by prayer. He let not an hour pass in the day 
without recollecting himself interiorly, and examining his con- 
flciencey for this purpose banishing for a while all other 
thoughts. He never applied his mind so much to exterior 
affilirs a^ to lose the sweet relish of interior devotion. He had 
Grod always and in all things present to his mind. Every ob- 
ject served him for a book, wherein he read the divine perfec- 
tions, and by that means raised his heart to his Creator. Ho 
recommended this manner of prayer to every one, especially to 
those who are employed in spiritual functions for the help of 
their neighbour. Before he betook himself to public or private 
prayer, he prepared his soul with great fervour, and entering 
into the oratory of his heart, enkindled his affections, so that 
this appeared in his countenance, and he seemed to be all on 
fire, as we ourselves frequently observed, says Ribadeneira. 
The saint being once asked by F. Lainez what manner of prayer 
he used, gave this answer, that in matters concerning Almighty 
God he behaved himself rather passively than actively. He 
prayed sometimes standing, and profoundly adored the majesty 
of God present to his soul ; he oflen bowed his body low, and 
most frequently prayed on his knees. No sooner had he recol- 
lected his mind in God, but his countenance put on an air 
which appeared altogether heavenly, and often streams of tears 
fell sweetly from his eyes. 



JULT 31.] ST. IGNATIUS, C. 395 

He prescribed to the priests of his Order to be aboat half an 
boor at the altar in saying mass, to avoid on one side the least 
appearance of indecent huny and precipitation in that tremen- 
dons sacrifice ; and on the other, not to be tedious to the people 
by unseasonably indulging their private devotion. Nevertheless, 
he was himself about an hour in saying mass, to excuse which 
he alleged the plea of necessity, being often obliged to make 
pauses through an irresistible tenderness of devotion. After 
mass he spent two hours in private prayer, during which time 
no one was admitted to speak to him except on some pressing 
necessity. F. Lewis Gonzales, who for some time governed the 
college under him, says: *^ As often as I went to him at that 
time, which necessity frequently obliged me to do, I always 
saw his face shining with an air so bright and heavenly, that, 
quite forgetting myself, I stood astonished in contemplating 
him. Nor was his countenance like that of many devout men 
in whom I have admired a wonderful serenity at their prayers, 
but it breathed something quite unusual, and, as it were, di- 
vine." On other occasions the like was remarked in him ; on 
which account F. Lainez compared him to Moses when he 
came from conversing with God. Nicholas Lanoy testified, 
that he one day saw a fire flame on his head whilst he was S2),ying 
mass. St. Philip Neri, who often visited St. Ignatius, used to 
assure his friends that he had seen his face shining with bright 
rays of lights as F. Antony Galloni, his disciple and confident 
in all his concerns, and Marcellus Yitelleschi declared they 
had often heard from his own mouth ; of which Cardinal Tan« 
rusius, archbishop of Sienna, published an authentic certi- 
ficate.(l) John Petronius, a famous physician in Rome, declared 
publicly that, when sick, he once saw his own chamber, which 
was then very dark, by reason of the windows being shut, filled 
with a dazzling light from such rays upon the blessed man's 
coming into it. Isabel Rosella, John Pascal, and several other 
persons testified, that they had sometimes beheld his counte- 
nance at prayer sparkling with radiant beams of lights the 
abundant consolations which replenished his soul redounding on 
his body. John Pascal added, that he had seen him in prayer 
raised more than a foot above the ground, and heard him say 
(1) Extant in BartoU, I. 4, p. 3?i 



396 ST. IGNATIUS, C. [JoLY 31 

at the flame time : " O my God ! mj Lord! that men knew 
thee !" The saint was often favoured, amidst the tears and 
fervour of his devotion, with wonderful raptures, visions, and 
revehttions ; and some of these visions and other supernatural 
favours St Ignatius mentioned himself in short notes which he 
wrote, and which were found in his own hand after his death, 
some of which notes are published by F. Bartoli.(l) Others 
are mentioned by Bibadeneira, who inserted in the saint's life, 
as he declares, only what himself had seen, or had heard from 
his mouth, or from persons of unquestionable authority, and 
whose life of his holy founder, by the order of St Francis 
Borgia, was carefully examined and approved by the principal 
persons then living who had frequently conversed with the 
saint, as Salmeron, BobadiUa, Polancus, who had been the 
saint's secretary, Natalis, &c. 

If the spirit of prayer was that virtue by which our saint was 
admitted to the familiar intercourse with God, was the key 
which unlocked to him the treasure of all other virtues and 
graces, and was the continual comfort, support, and light of his 
soul, and the constant advancement of its supernatural life in 
his mortal pilgrimage, this spirit was itself founded in the most 
perfect self-denial. The Holy Ghost never communicates him-* 
self, by the infusion of this grace, but to a heart that is entirely 
dead to itself and its passions, and crucified to the world. This 
St Ignatius understood so well, that hearing another once say, 
that a certain person was endowed with a great gift of contem- 
plation, and was eminently a man of prayer, he corrected the 
expression, saying : <^ call him rather a man of the most perfect 
aelf-denial ;" because the spirit of grace and prayer requires a 
perfect purity and disengagement from all inordinate affections, 
and a heart empty of itself. This victory over himself the 
saint obtained by an habitual practice of the exterior mortifi- 
cation of his senses ; and by that perfect patience, resignation, 
and confidence in God, and constancy with which he bore the 
most seyere interior and exterior trials. To complete the most^ 
essential interior mortification of his will and passions, he added 
the practice of an unlimited obedience to his directors and su- 
periors, and of the most profound and sincere humility Even 
(1) Ii. 4, n. 29, p. 355. 



JCLl 31.] ST. ICNATIUS, c, 397 

when broken with age and infirmities, he said^ that should his 
holiness command it, he would with joy go on board the first 
ship he could find ; and if he were so ordered, though it had 
neither sails no? rudder, and without any warning, would im- 
mediately set out for any part of the globe. It was his per- 
petual lesson to his novices : ^^ Sacrifice your will and judgment 
by obedience. Whatever you do without .the consent of your 
spiritual guide will be imputed to wilfulness, not to virtue, 
though you were to exhaust your bodies by labours or auste- 
rities." 

Humility is the sister virtue of obedience, the foundation of 
A spiritual life, and the distinguishing mark or characteristic of 
all the saints. This virtue, St. Ignatius embraced with the 
utmost ardour, from his first entering upon a Spiritual course of 
life. He went a long time in old tattered rags, and lived in 
hospitals, despised, affronted, and persecuted ; this he desired, 
and in it he found his great joy and satisfaction. He ever 
retained this affection for humiliations, out of a sincere con- 
tempt of himself; for acknowledging himself a sinner, he was 
thoroughly persuaded that contempt and injuries from all 
creatures, as instruments of the divine justice, were his due, 
and that he was most unworthy of all comforts, favour, or 
regard. Nothing but charity and zeal to procure his neigh- 
bour's good restrained him from doing ridiculous things on 
purpose to be laughed at by all ; and he always practised such 
humiliations as were consistent with prudence and his other 
duties. All his actions and whatever belonged to him, 
breathed an air of sincere humility. His apparel was poor, 
though clean ; his bed was very mean, and his diet coarse, and 
so temperate, that it was a perpetual abstinence. He employed 
himself often most cheerfully in the meanest offices about the 
bouse, as in making beds, and in cleansing the chamber? of the 
sick. It was his great study to conceal his virtues, and nothing 
was more admirable in his life than the address with which he 
covered his most heroic actions under the veil of humility. 
Though he was superior, he frequently submitted to inferiors 
with wonderful meekness and humility, when he could do it 
without prejudice to his authority. In things of which he was 
not certain, he reidily acquiesced in the judgment of others; 

VOL. VII, 2 c 



n98 BT. IGNATIUS, C. [JULY 31. 

and WM a great enemy to all positiyeness, and to the nse of 
Bupeiiatiyes in discourse. He received rebukes from anj one 
rith cheerfulness and thanks. If in his presence anything 
wtis said that redounded to his praise, he showed an extreme 
confusion, which was usually accompanied with many tears* 
He was seldom heard to speak of himself, and never but on 
very pressing occasions. Though visions, revelations, and the 
like favours were frequently vouchsafed him, he scarcely ever 
mentioned such things ; but all his discourse was of humility, 
charity, patience, divine zeal, prayer, mortification, and other 
such virtues, of which we are to make the greatest account, and 
by which alone men become saints and friends of God. Biba^ 
deneira heard him say, that every one in the house was to him 
an example of virtue, and that he was not scandalized at any 
one besides himself. It was his usual saying, that he did not 
think there was a man in the world, that on one side received 
from God so great and continual favours, and yet on the other 
side was so ungrateful, and so slothful in his service as himself. 
It was his desire that, after his death, his body might be thrown 
upon some dunghill, in punishment of the sins he had com- 
mitted by pampering it. The chief reasons why he would have 
his Order called The Society of Jesus were, lest his name 
should be given it, and that his followers might be known 
by their love and zeal for their Redeemer. As often as he 
spoke of his Order, he called it, This least Society ; for he 
would have his children -to look upon themselves as the last and 
least of all persons in the church. 

From the perfect mortification of all his passions and inordi- 
nate affections resulted an admirable peace and evenness of 
mind which nothing seemed able ever to disturb or rufiie. His 
contempt of the world appeared by the disinterestedness with 
which he rejected legacies and presents whenever they might 
give occasion to complaints. When he looked up towards the 
heavens, he used feelingly to repeat : " How contemptible doth 
earth appear when I behold the heavens !" Charity, or the 
most ardent and pure love of God, was the most conspicuous, 
and the crown of all his other virtues. He had often in his * 
mouth these words, which he took for his motto or device — "To 
the greater glory of God/' referring to this end, with all hh 



July 31.] b-r. ignatius, c. 309 

strength, himself, his Society, and all his actions, in which ho 
always chose that which appeared to him the most perfect 
He often said to God : " Lord, what do I desire, or what can I 
desire besides thee !" True love is never idle ; and always to 
labour, to promote God's honour, or to suffer for his sake was 
this saint's greatest pleasure. He said, that no created thing 
can bring to a soul such solid joy and comfort as to suffer for 
Christ. Being asked what was the most certain and the 
shortest way to perfection, he answered : " To endure for the 
love of Christ many and grievous afflictions. Ask this grace 
of our Lord : on whomsoever he bestoweth it, he does him 
many other signal favours, that always attend this grace." Out 
of this burning love of God, he most ardently desired the 
reparation of his soul from his mortal body, when it should be 
God's will; and, when he thought of death, he could not refrain 
from tears of joy, because he should then see his loving Re- 
deemer ; and, beholding God face to face, should love and 
praise him eternally, without let, abatement^ or intermission. 

From this same love of God sprang his ardent thirst for the 
salvation of men, for which he undertook so many and so great 
things, and to which he devoted his watchings, prayers, tears, 
and labours. When he dismissed any missionaries ' to preach 
the word of God, he usually said to them : " Go, brethren, in- 
flame the world, spread about that fire which Jesus Christ came 
to kindle on earth." To gain others to Christ he, with ad- 
mirable address, made himself all to all, going in at their door, 
and coming out at kts own. He received sincere penitents 
with the greatest sweetness and condescension, so as often to 
take upon himself part of their penance. When a brother, 
growing weary of the yoke of Christ, had determined to leave 
the Society, St. Ignatius by his remonstrances made such an 
impression upon his heart, that falling at the feet of the general, 
he offered to undergo whatever punishment he would impose 
upon him. To which the saint replied : " One part of your 
penance shall be, that you never repent more of having served 
God. For the other part, I take it upon myself, and will dis- 
charge it for you." He endeavoured to bring all his penitents 
to make, without reserve, the perfect sacrifice of themselves to 
God. teihng them, that it is not to be expressed what preciou? 



400 ST. IGNATIUS, C. r [JfLT 31 

treasures God reserves for, and with what effusion he commu 
nicates himself to those who give themselves to him with their 
whole heart. He proposed to .them for their model this praj'er, 
which he used often to recite: "Receive, O Lord, all my 
liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. 
You have given me all that I have, all that I possess, and I 
surrender all to your divine will, that yon dispose of me* Give 
me only your love and your grace ; with this I am rich enough, 
and I have no more to ask." 

St. Ignatius was general of the Society fifteen years, three 
months, and nine days ; but was in the end so worn out with 
infirmities, that he procured that the Society should choose him 
an assistant in that office. This was F. Jerom Nadal. After 
which, the saint reserved to himself only the care of the sick, 
and spent his time in continual prayer, and in preparing himself 
for death. By way of his last will and testament, he dictated 
certain holy maxims concerning the obligation and conditions 
of religious obedience, which he bequeathed to his brethren of 
the Society. The saint, on the day before he died, charged F. 
Polancus to beg his holiness's blessing for him at the article of 
death, though others at that time did not tkink it so near. The 
next morning, having lifted up his eyes and hands to heayen, 
and pronouncing, both with his tongue and heart, the sweet 
name of Jesus, with a serene countenance, he calmly gave up 
his happy soul into the hands of his Creator on the last day of 
July, in the year 1556, the sixty-fifth of his age, the thirty- 
fifth after his conversion, and the sixteenth after the confirma- 
tion of the Society. The people esteemed him a saint both 
living and after his death ; and the opinion of his sanctity was 
confirmed by many miracles.* He saw his Society in very few 

* Bayle makes exceptions to the miracles of St. Ignatius because Ri- 
badeneira. In the first life of this saint, which he wrote in 157'2, inquires 
why his sanctity was not equally attested by wonderful miracles as that 
of the founders of some other Orders. ** Quamobrem illius eanctitaa 
minus est testata miraculis," &c. But in this very edition, in the last 
chapter, p. 209, he writes: " Mihi tantum abest ut ad vitam Ignatii 
illustrandam miracula deesse videantur, ut multa eaque prsestantissima 
judleem in media luce versari." He then recapitulates some facts which 
he had before related, and which he esteems miraculous, as a rapture in 
which the saint continued for eight days ; so many wonderful, heavenly 
illuminations and revelations ; the restoration of F. Simon, who lay daa> 



July 31.] st. igxatius, c. 401 

^ears divided into twelve provinces, with above one hundred 
colleges, and spread over almost the whole world. In 1626, it 
contained thirty-six provinces, and in them eipht hundred 
houses, and fifteen thousand Jesuits, since which time it is 

gerously sick, to his health, pursuant to his prediction ; the wonderful 
deliverance of a demoniac ; the cures of several sick persons ; the fore- 
telling many particular things to private persons, &c. The author re- 
published this life in 1587, with sotne additions. He afterwards wrote a 
Latin abstract of this first life, in which he inserted many miracles. 
This he calls ** Alteram breviorem vltara, sed multis ac novis miraculis 
auctam." In this he tells us that he had before been' more cautious in re- 
lating miracles, because they had not yet been examined and approved ; 
but that he chose some which were esteemed miraculous, not in the opi- 
nion of the common people, but in the judgment of prudent persons. See 
this remark also in the Spanish abstract of this life, published in 1604 ; 
and in the Latin abstract, reprinted at Ipres in 1612. In his Spanish 
life of St. Ignatius, among his lives of saints, prmted in 1604, he writes 
thus : •* Though, when I first printed his life in 1572, I knew of some 
miracles of the holy father, I did not look upon them to be so verified 
(averiguados) as to think that I ought to publish them, which afterwards, 
by the authentical informations taken for his canonization, were proved 
true by credible witnesses ; and the Lord, who is pleased to exalt him, 
and make him glorious on earth, works daily such miracles on his account 
as oblige me to relate part of them here, taken from the original juridi. 
cal informations which several bishops have made, and from the depo- 
sitions made upon oath by the persons on whom the miracles were 
wrought." &c. (Ribad. Spanish Lives, p. 1124.) Moreover, Ribadeneira 
mentions in his first and second edition of this life, prophecies, revela- 
tions, visions, and the like miraculous favours, and he expressly distin- 
guishes these from the gift of miracles, by which he means miraculous 
cures and the like, though the former may be justly placed in the general 
class of miracles. If the works of Ribadeneira on this subject be all 
carefully perused, it will be easy to discern the scrupulous accuracy of 
the author in this point ; and the candid reader will be convinced how 
much some have misrepresented his testimony. Nor was he allowed to 
publish miracles before they had been approved, as the Council of Trent 
severely ordained. (Sess. 25, de Inv. Sanct.) See on it Julius Nigro- 
nius (Disp. Hist, de SS. Ignatio et Cajetano, n. 57,) and Finius'the Boi- 
landist, in his confutation of this slander. 

In the relation made in the secret consistory before Gregory XV. of 
miracles which had been examined and approved by the Cardinal k 
Monte and other commissaries, are mentioned the supernatural light 
shining on his face at prayer, upon the testimony of St. Philip Neri and 
F. Oliver Manerius. That St. Ignatius, by his blessing and prayer 
cured one Bastida of the falling sickness, and the hand of a cook mise- 
rably burnt; delivered Pontanus from most violent temptations with 
which be had been grievously molested for two years, &c. ; but the mira- 
cles which are chiefly attended to in a canonization, are those which have 
been performed after the person's death. Of such, many manifest ones 
were approved, first by the Auditors of the Rota, and afterwards by the 
Congregation of Rites. Among these are mentioned the following* 
Isabel Rebelles, a nun of Barcelona, pixty-seven years old, in 1601, had 
broken her thigh-bone: and being attended by a physician and surgeon 



■102 ST. IGNATIUS, C. [JULT 31 

much increased. St. Ignatius's body was btu-ied first in the 
little church of the Jesuits, dedicated in honour of the Blessed 
Virgin in Rome. When Cardinal Alexander Farnesius had 
built the stately church of the professed house called II Giesu, 
it was translated thither in 15B7 ; and, in 1637, was laid under 
the altar of the chapel, which bears his name. This church is 
one of the most magnificent piles of building in the world next; 
to the Vatican, and is not less admired for the elegance of the- 
architecture than for its riches, consisting in costly beautiful 
ornaments of gold, silver, jewels, exquisite paintings, statues, 
and carving, and a great profusion of fine marble. Among the 
many chapels which it contains, those of the Blessed Virgin, ot 
the Angels, of SS. Abundius and Abundantius, martyrs, ol 
St. Francis Borgia, of St. Ignatius, are the admiration of tra-» 
vellers, especially the last ; in which the remains of the holy 
founder lie, in a rich silver shrine under the altar, exposed 
to view. The other glittering rich ornaments of this place seem 
almost to lose their lustre when the statue of the *iint is un- 
covered. It is somewhat bigger than the life, because raised 
high. Its bright shining gold, silver, and sparkling diamonds, 

during? forty days, and under grievous pains and a violent fever, was ex- 
pected to die that night, and given over as to all natural remedies, when, 
by applying a relic of St. Ignatius, and saying the Lord's Prayer and" 
Hail Mary, with an invocation of this saint, the swelling of the thigh 
and leg went down, she found herself able to stir both, and without any 
pain ; and calling for her clothes she got up, walked perfectly, and with 
ease, and felt no more of lier complaint, not even at new moons or in the 
dampest seasons. Anne Barozellona, at Valadolid, almost sixty years 
old, was cured of a desperate palsy by invoking St. Ignatius, with a vow 
to perform a novena. A widow who had lost her sight in both her eyes, 
recovered it by recommending herself to the prayers of St. Ignatiu?, 
and touching her eyes with a relic, &c. F. Jos». Juvency (Hist. Soc. 
Jesu, 1. 15, part 5, § 9,") has selected and related many like miracles of 
St Ignatius. F. Daniel Bartoli, in his life of this saint, has given a his- 
tory of a hundred such miracles. (1. 5. ) See also the great collection 
made by F. Pinius, the continuator of Bollandus. 

Though Cardinal Pole thought circumstances did not allow him to 
make any settlement for Jesuits in England, as the author of the Monas- 
tic History of Ireland and others take notice, that great and holy man 
highly esteemed St. Ignatius and his institute. See a letter of St. Igna- 
tius to Cardinal Pole, dated at Rome, 24th of January, 1555, and that 
cardinal's answer to him from Richmond, 8th of May ; and another from 
London, 15th of December the same year ; also his letter of condolence 
to F. Lainez upon the death of St. Ignatius, dated at London, 15th of 
November, 1556 published among the letters of Cardinal Pole, collected 
by Cardinal Querini at Brescia, t. 5, pp. 117, 118, 119, 120, 121. 



JlTLY 31.j ST. JOHN OLCMEINI, C 403 

cspeciallj in the crown of gloiy over the head dazzle the. eye. 
In the professed house are shown the pictures of St. Ignatius 
and St. Philip Neri, taken from the life. St. Ignatius's cham- 
ber is now a chapel, his study is another, in which prelates 
and sometimes popes, come to say mass on the saint's festival. 
He Ti-aR beatified by Paul V. in 1 609. and canonized by Gre- 
gory XV. in 1622, though the bull was only published the year 
following by Urban VIII. 

I'he example of the saints evinces that to disengage our affec- 
tions from earthly things, and to converse much in heaven by 
the constant union of our hearts to God,' is the short road to 
Christian perfection. Those who are employed in the activo 
life, ought to learn the art of accompanying all their actions 
with a lively attention to the divine presence, as our guardiai: 
anr^el? are faithful in discharging every duty of that external 
ministry which God haili committed to them, yet so as never 
to intermit their contemplation of the Godhead, and their in- 
cessant homages of praise and love, which are the uninterrupted 
employment of their happy state. Without this precaution, by 
the hurry of dry studies, and even the discharge of the sacred 
ministry itself, the spirit of piety and devotion is extinguished 
in the heart, and the more sacred functions are easily profaned.. 

ST. JOHN COLUMBINI, C. 

FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF THE JESUATI. 

He was descended of one of the most ancient and noble families 
of Sienna ; and being chosen first magistrate of that common- 
n-ealth, acquitted himself of all the duties of that charge with 
integrity and honour, and to the great satisfaction of his coun- 
trymen ; but he was passionate, and his heart was strongly 
wedded to the world, and buried under the weight and hurry 
of its business, vanity, and ambition, so that he scarcely seemed 
Rble to find leisure to breathe, or to think of eternity. One 
day, after being taken up the whole morning in deciding causes 
in his court, he came home, much fatigued, and not finding 
dinner ready, flew into a violent passion. His wife put a book 
of the Saints' Lives into his hands ; but he threw it on the 
ground. The next moment, being ashamed of his passion, he 
took it up again, and sitting down to read, fell on the life of 



404 ?T. JOHN COLUMBINl, C. [JUJ.V 31. 

8i. Mary of Egypt He read it with so much pleasure that he 
thought no more of his dinner ; and insensibly found his heart 
pierced with compunction and remorse for his past sins and 
unthinking conduct, and entirely weaned from the world. 

From that moment he resolved to begin a new life ; and, to 
expiate his offences, he embraced the most austere practices of 
penance. Resigning his public employs, he consecrated the 
greater part of his estates to alms-deeds ; and being sensible 
that the first sacrifice which God requires of a sinner is that of 
n contrite and humble heart, without which no other can be ac- 
ceptible to him, he spent his time chiefly in prayers and tears. 
He sold his rich clothes and fui^iture, giving the money to the 
poor, that they might be intercessors in his behalf at the throne 
of mercy ; he lay on two boards, watching great part of the 
night in prayer, and his house seemed converted into an hospi- 
tal, so great was the number of the poor and sick that he 
caused to be brought thither, and attended. The whole coun- 
try was astonished at so great a change, and so exemplary a 
penance. Francis Vincent joined him in this manner of life. 
They both ran the same course, and with equal paces. One 
day, seeing a leper lying at the door of the great church, co- 
vered with blotches and ulcers, the saint carried him on his 
back through the public market-place ; attending him both as 
his servant and physician, tenderly kissing his running sores 
one after another, till he had perfectly overcome the abhorrence 
which nature inspires in such actions, and continued his care of 
this patient till he was perfectly cured. 

St. John had one son and one daughter. The fonner God 
called to himself by death, and the latter consecrated lierself 
to his divine service in a nunnery. St. John had before this, 
with his wife's consent, made a vow of chastity; and after 
their children were thus disposed of, he sold his estate, and 
gave one-third of it to an hospital, and the other two-thirds to 
different churches and the poor. Having thus reduced himself 
to a state of poverty like that of the apostles, he gave himself 
up to serve the poor in the hospitals, and to the exercises of de- 
votion and the most rigorous penance. Several others, moved 
by his example, became his faithful imitators and companions. 
They were solicitous to exhort the sick and poor to the sincere 



JU1.Y 31.J ST. IIELEX, M. 405 

dispositions of repeutance, and to fervour in the divine fief- 
vice ; and the charity and disinterestedness with which they 
ministered to them corporal relief and comfort, gave great force 
to their zealous instructions. Out of their ardent love of our 
Redeemer^ whom thej considered and served in his afflicted 
members, they had his holj name so often, and with so great 
devotion and respect in their mouths, that the people gave 
them the name of Jesuats. That adorable name is repeated 
fifteen hundred times in the few letters which St. John wrote. 
The number of his disciples being increased to about seventy, 
he formed them into a religious order, under the rule of St. 
Austin, and took St. Jerom for their patron.* He addressed 
himself to Pope Urban V., at Viterbo, who approved and con- 
firmed his institute in ld67» and granted to it most ample pri- 
vileges. Such was the fervour of the first disciples of our 
saint, that almost all their names have been placed among the 
blessed. The holy founder fell sick soon after the approbation 
of his order ; and, having received the last sacraments, com 
mending his soul into the hands of his Creator, through the 
death of Christ, and in union with his recommendation of his 
divine soul to his Father on the cross, he happily expired on 
the 31st of July, in the year 1367, the twelfth after his con- 
version, only thirty-seven days after his order had been con- 
firmed by Pope Urban V. See F. Cuper, the Bollandist, Julij, 
t. 7, p. 3^3, and Helyot, Hist, des Ord. Rel., t. 3, p. 410. 

SAINT HELEN OF SKOFDE IN SWEDEN, M. 

She was a lady of quality in Westrogothia, whom Saint Sig- 
frid, apostle of that province in Sweden, who died in 1045, 
converted to the faith. iShe maae a pilgrimage to Rome, and 
upon her return was martyred by her own relations about the 
year 1160, at her own estate of Skofde or Scceude, in West- 

• The Je8Uftts of St. Jerom were at first all lay-brothers, and piuctised 
pharmacy ; but, in 1606, obtained leave of Paul Y. to study ana take 
holy orders. The houses of the friars being reduced, they were sup. 
pressed by Clement IX. in 1668; but some nunneries of this Order still 
subsist in Italy. See the life of this saint, and those of other illustrious 
persons of this Order, written by Moriggia, a pious general of the same, 
v/ho died in 1604; also the B'>llandists and HeJyot. 



40f^ «T. BXLEN, M. [eluliY 81. 

rogotliia in Sweden. She was honoured on the 31st of July, 
with extraordinary devotion in that country, and in the isle of 
Seland in Denmark, especially in the church which bears her 
name, where her body was kept in a rich shrine, eight miles 
from Copenhagen, near tHe sea, in which place there is a fa- 
mous miraculous well still resorted to by the Lutherans, and 
called to this day St. Lene Kild, or St. Helen's well. She wafl 
canonized by Alexander III., in 1164, and her feast fixed aa 
the dlst of Ju]y. See the BoUandists ad 3 Jnlii. 



END OF VOL. VII. 



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